When You Face Reality
by TripleZ786
Summary: Years after Adira Yousuf's family was mysteriously killed, she was sent to True Cross Academy after receiving her ability to see demons. Along side with Rin and Yukio Okumura, the Muslim girl sets out to avenge her family and find the secret being kept from her. Will she be able to face reality's truth? **Adira is my OC**
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! Okay, so this is my first fanfic and I'm kinda a noob on this website, but I wanted to write a fanfic about the Blue Exorcist. I know, its weird, a **_**Muslim **_**exorcist?! But this has been on my mind for awhile, me being Muslim and loving this anime/manga. :D So, I hope you enjoy!**

***Disclaimer: I do not own The Blue Exorcist**

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Chapter One

Adira Yousuf was sitting in an awkward position on top of her suitcase, nodding off. A city bus zoomed passed behind where she was sitting, causing the end of her headscarf to fly in the wind. Her eyelids flickered, revealing her dark violet colored irises'. She glanced at her watch.

"They're late", she muttered, shouldering her backpack.

Adira still couldn't believe it - it was all too sudden. She remembered her conversation with the old clown she had, months ago...

"Did you seriously come all the way from Japan, just to talk to me?" Adira asked curiously. "But why?"

"Well, these little creatures you see - not everyone can see them," Mephisto Pheles said, flicking a coal tar away from him."_These are demons.'_

"Wha-what? Demons?" Adira snorted. "Come one! You've got to be joking!"

Mephisto smirked. "Not at all. To keep the long story short - Assiah is the place where we humans live, and Gehenna - the demons. But there are still some demons that live in Assiah. Exorcists are those known to fight and eliminate the demons living in our world."

Adira stared at him open-mouthed. "Do you really expect me to believe that? Who the hell are you anyway, old clown?!"

"I do, in fact. In the position that you are in I'd take any opportunity I can to find out -"

"Well, you haven't told me anything about my family mysteriously dying! Are you trying to bribe me?" Adira glared at his calm, smirking face.

"Maybe. However, with your skills, you can become an excellent exorcist. I've already booked your plane to Japan in a couple months. You will be staying with two young men - one is just like you, an exorcist in training." Mephisto Pheles got up.

'_What the hell is that supposed to mean? My skills?'_

"Hey wait-", Adira started.

"Here," Mephisto said flicking her a piece of folded paper. "All the information is on that. Well I should be heading out now", Mephisto opened the door out of her room. "I look forward to your stay at True Cross Academy. I am the principal, after all. Its where you will be learning all about being an exorcist", He closed the door to her room, muttering excitedly about the girls' school uniforms.

Adira was staring at the door, her mouth still slightly open.

"Hey old clown!" she yelled,"I haven't agreed to anything you said!"

'_Asshole...and he's supposed to be the principal?! What a pain...'_

Despite this, she grinned. Her grin was naturally more of a smirk, but she couldn't help that. At least it's a start to find out about the mystery of her family's death...and why everyone treats her like yesterday's garbage, too. She looked at the piece of paper explaining when her flight is, and where she will meet the two guys she will be staying with. '_Why boys, though?' _She laughed at the thought of what her mother would say. She looked down at the paper to read their names: _Rin and Yukio Okumura (15)._

* * *

"Rin!" Yukio Okumura yelled from the door to their dorm,"Come one, you're going to make us late!"

"I know, I'm coming" Rin yawned loudly,"Why did you have to wake me up early on a Saturday, anyway?" he complained, as they walked out of their dorm.

"Did you forget already?" Yukio sighed. "Remember our talk with Mephisto yesterday? We're going to pick up 'Yousuf Adira' from the bus stop, because she's a new exorcist in training. She came all the way from America! And Sir Pheles also said that she's Muslim. Thats pretty interesting, huh? Must be weird for her..."

Rin scratched his head. "Muslim...where have I heard of that before?" he wondered out loud.

"Honestly, Rin! You're so clueless! A Muslim is someone who follows the religion, Islam" Yukio sighed again.

Rin snapped. "Thats right!"

Before Rin could ask something else, Yukio grabbed his arm.

"We should get there quickly - you already made us late by oversleeping!"

Rin yelped as Yukio dragged him.

"Damn it, Yukio, let me go! Shura took away my sword, so you should at least cut me some slack!"

When they arrived in the front of the bus stop, they saw something unexpected.

"Hey Yukio...is that her?"

"Yeah, she matches the descriptions, but..."

Rin looked at the girl sitting on her suitcase, with her head leaned backwards on the pulled up handle. She was wearing a blue headscarf, with a long sleeved plaid shirt, and jeans. Despite her tomboyish appearance, she obviously a girl, no matter how you looked at her. The problem was that she was fast asleep, with her mouth open.

"Should we wake her up, or something?", asked Rin poking Yukio.

"Umm...well-"

Suddenly, one of Adira's violet eyes snapped open, looking up at Rin and Yukio. She jumped up looking embarrassed, her cheeks dusted with pink.

"Damn it, I fell asleep again!" she muttered rubbing her eyes, "Sorry about that - jet lag, you know..."

"It's all right" Yukio said, a bit surprised of her first impression.

"So", Adira yawned, "You guys must be Rin and Yukio Okumura, if I'm not mistaken." She grinned.

"I'm Adira Yousuf," she said holding out her hand to shake.

Now that she was standing up, Rin got a better look at her. She had dark olive colored skin, which had a nice complexion with her rare colored eyes. Her grin was slightly in a smirkish way, but not forced. She was well-built and was tall, but not as tall as Rin or Yukio. She really was pretty, Rin realized, even if you couldn't see her hair.

After they introduced themselves, they started to make their way towards True Cross Academy, with an awkward silence.

"So we're going to see that old clown, Mephisto, right?" asked Adira trying to break the silence.

"Yeah. He'll be telling you a little bit about the school..."

As Yukio and Adira talked, Rin couldn't help but wonder why that clown would put Adira in their dorm. He knows full well that Rin is the son of Satan, and it would be such a pain to hide his tail 24/7. He groaned inwardly.

Rin, Yukio, and Adira reached Mephistos office, and Yukio knocked before opening.

"Its us" he said, "And we brought Adira."

"Ahhh, good", Mephisto said, turning around his swivel chair to face them, "So Adira, you've finally come, my dear." Mephisto smirked and stood up, gesturing. "Now have a seat."

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**THANKS FOR READING! Also I wanted to say thank you to CheetahLover101 who gave advice, and encouragement! Go check her account too!^^**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello! :D Thanks for the positive reviews and for enjoying the first chapter! I also wanted to reply to hdjskyessuhwllo (lol nice guest name), and to clarify that: **

**1\. NO, I will not put Adira in the same room as Rin, and Yukio. But, I will put them in the same dorm or building or whatever you wanna call it (you will know later in the story, why I did that, at some point). **

**2\. Second, I do believe that a boy and a girl can like shake hands or high five, but not anything more, like hug or any of that stuff. :/ I find it normal to shake hands because it's a form of greeting. Also, there might be someone grabbing someone else's arm, or pushing someone away, because of all the fighting and stuff.**

**So, sorry that I wasn't clear on that. Well, I did figure that something **_**will **_**come up about beliefs and religion, because some people will believe in something else, so I was kinda hesitant in writing this fanfic. However, I'm not gonna be so strict on this stuff because it's only a story. BTW if you aren't Muslim and have no idea about the whole 'touching each other' thing, you could just ignore it, sorry about that. **

**Sorry for the late update. I was really lazy and my teachers decided to give us a bunch of weekend homework on the first week of school. :( BUUUUT, without further adieu, here is the second chapter. I wanted to make it long to make it up to you guys, but instead just spent even more time on it, so I hope it was worth your wait. :D Damn, I feel really bad though. I can't make any promises, but hopefully I could upload a chapter sooner. In this chapter, you get to know a little more about Adira, and also in the following chapter.**

**Wow that was really long. Here is a cookie for your convenience if you read all that. *gives you cookie***

***I do not own the Blue Exorcist (or Pokemon, lol)**

***btw, hijab is another word for headscarf, and halal meat is meat slaughtered in the name of god, for those of you who don't know :)**

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Chapter 2

"_All right, Charizard, you're up next!" Adira yelled as she threw the pokeball._

"_Use flamethrower!"_

_But, when Charizard used flamethrower, something wasn't right..._

"_Huh? You spout _blue _flames?"_

Adira suddenly woke up, with a burning feeling in her gut. She opened her eyes to see a navy blue haired boy, and another dark haired boy with glasses, looking down at her with confusion. It took Adira a moment to realize that she was still sitting on her suitcase, and she jumped up, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Damn it, I fell asleep again!" she muttered rubbing her eyes, "Sorry about that - jet lag, you know..."

"It's all right," said the guy with the glasses.

"So," Adira yawned, "You guys must be Rin and Yukio Okumura, if I'm not mistaken". She grinned. "I'm Adira Yousuf," she said holding out her hand to shake.

The guy with the glasses shook first - he was Yukio. He was wearing a casual t-shirt and ankle length pants. He had two moles under his eyes, and one by his chin on his slightly natural pale face.

"Nice to meet you, Yousuf-san," Yukio said politely.

"Yousuf-san...?" Adira cocked her head. "Please, just call me Adira. People in America don't call each other by their last name often, and they definitely don't put honorifics at the end of someones name," the words poured from her mouth, and Adira was surprised. She wasn't really shy, but she didn't really talk much either. She only talked this much to those whom she knows well enough, and is comfortable with (well, the only people that she _was _comfortable with, was her family). But talking to them...it felt good, it felt normal. I was like she had some sort of _bond_ that they shared, but that was impossible. She never had seen them before in her life. She couldn't remember when it was the last time she had a conversation like this with another person. The feeling was alien to her, no one actually talked to her back home. They talked _about _her, but thats a different story.

"Okumura Rin," the navy blue haired guy said. When Adira shook his hand, the burning sensation increased and her eyes widened - she never felt anything like it before. Rin was wearing a black hoodie with a pink t-shirt underneath. He wore black jeans with chains running along the sides. Both boys had intense blue eyes.

"So..." Adira said, trying to break the silence as they walked. "We're going to see that old clown Mephisto, right?"

"Yeah," Yukio said. "He'll be telling you about the school, and such. You know, you shouldn't call him 'old clown'".

Adira grinned and shrugged. "I'm sure he doesn't mind, considering he acts just like one. And clowns are also creepy, so it fits his personality, perfectly."

Yukio smiled. "You know, you're probably right..."

"Hey," Adira said, and thought back about how she introduced herself to them. "You don't think I'm weird do you? Like if there's anything strange about me?" she blurted.

"Huh?" Yukio asked. "What do you mean?"

"Umm...well, everybody never really liked me back at home," she muttered. "So I didn't really know what you guys were going to say, and stuff..."

'_Ugh, why am I bringing this up now?! We literally had a normal conversation, like, five minutes ago. Good job, Adira, good job.'_

Yukio laughed. "You shouldn't worry about making friends. You will have a lot of opportunities in the academy..."

'_Friends, huh? I've never made a friend in my entire life...I wonder how it feels to not be treated like crap...'_

Adira had a habit of losing her stream of thought, and totally forgot about her conversation with Yukio.

'_Speaking of friends, why did I get a weird feeling when I shook hands with the other guy, Rin? And why is he so quiet? Did I do something wrong? But don't people shake hands when they meet?'_

Without even realizing it Adira almost bumped right into the guy, when they arrived Mephisto's office. Yukio knocked before opening the door.

"Its us," he said. "And we brought Yous-err, Adira with us".

"Ahhh, good," Mephisto said, turning around his swivel chair to face them. "So Adira, you've finally come, my dear." Mephisto smirked and stood up gesturing. "Now have a seat."

Adira winced at the look Mephisto gave her.

"You're really creepy, you know that?" Adira mumbled, as she trudged her suitcase to a chair and sat down. Rin and Yukio smirked at that, but Mephisto pretended not to hear.

"Welcome-" Mephisto exclaimed, spreading his arms out. "-to True Cross Academy! I'm sure that you'll have a great time here! The first semester is almost ending, so it will be perfect! Your first day is tomorrow."

"Umm...yeah," Adira said, and scooted her chair a bit away from him.

"To keep things simple, you will have the exact same classes with Rin," Mephisto explained. "and also will be in the same dorm with him, and Yukio, of course."

Adira nodded, but felt a little uncomfortable.

"And..." Mephisto grinned, bent over his desk and got out some clothes."...you get your uniform!"

Adira stared at the outfit. It consisted of a white short sleeved collar shirt with a tie shaped like a bow, a belt, a mini skirt, and tights that went above the knee. Adira's mouth opened, then closed slowly.

"I'm not going to wear that," she said bluntly.

Rin and Yukio looked up, surprised, but Mephisto, not that much.

"Eh? But why not?" Rin asked her, looking a bit flustered.

"Well," she said pointing to her headscarf. "I'm Muslim, and in my religion, girls can't wear short sleeves or super short skirts." Adira crossed her arms and nodded, as if agreeing to herself.

"But, _why_?" Rin emphasized.

"It shows that we are being modest", she said. "and also because we can't date. Hair and showing off skin makes a girl look even more beautiful, for lack of a better word, and in our religion we can't attract the opposite gender like that." Adira looked at her feet. She had to admit, it felt really awkward talking about this in a room full of boys, and was sure it felt awkward to them too.

"Oh," Rin cleared his throat, and looked the opposite direction. Yukio pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose. Mephisto, however grinned, and looked as though that was his plan from the very beginning.

"Well then," he feigned a sigh. "It looks like I have no choice. You can wear the uniform for the boys - it isn't revealing, so rest assured." He bent over his desk again and got out the boys uniform - a white full sleeved collar shirt, a black jacket, black pants, and a tie.

Adira let out a breath. "Thanks, perverted clown. I owe you".

"Indeed, you do", Mephisto said, his eye twitching from the nickname. Mephisto's hand went to his pocket and pulled out a key. "Here", he said tossing it to her. "Fit this key into any keyhole and it will take you to your cram classes."

"Sweet," Adira said, and attempted to catch it, fumbling it with her hands. '_A magical key, huh? Well I'd believe in anything in a world full of demons.'_

"Yukio-you know what to do," Mephisto said, grinning. Yukio nodded. Adira and Rin exchanged glances. '_Huh?'_

"All right," Yukio said, "We should be going now."

"Um, okay..."Adira got up and shifted her backpack over her shoulders. "See ya, old clown."

"Have a nice stay at True Cross Academy~!" he said cheerfully, as shivers went up Adira's spine.

"Well that escalated quickly," said Adira when they arrived outside of Rin and Yukio's dorm. "Wow...this whole entire thing is just for the both of you?" she said looking up at the building. "You guys must be pretty special..."

"Remember to hide the tail," Yukio muttered to Rin.

"Yeah, I know," Rin whispered back.

Yukio and Rin guided Adira up to the second level, where her room is. She put down her stuff and said that she would be down for dinner in a second. She didn't bother taking off her hijab, and decided to take it off before she slept, since she was going to see Rin and Yukio anyway. When Rin and Yukio left, she unpacked, and took out all of her drawing materials, setting it on the table. Drawing was only one of the two things which she was good at, and decided to put it to use. Since she lived in an orphanage, she didn't have much things to begin with, so she unpacked her clothes quickly. The last thing she took out was the family photo album she snuck out of the remains of her house, two years ago. She flipped to her favorite picture and pulled it out. It was with her whole family - her mom, her dad, herself, and her younger brother, Hakim, who would have turned twelve this year. All of them were laughing in the picture, with their arms around each others. She smiled as she remembered the time when she and Hakim were young, and they used to battle each other on Pokemon, with the new DSi that just came out. Adira always won, but she and her brother got along very well as siblings-they might've been best friends.

Enveloped in memories, Adira didn't notice Rin standing by her door, until he knocked.

"Oi, are you okay?" he asked. Adira looked up, surprised to see him there, leaning against the doorway. "I'm making dinner in a second, so you might as well come down, if you aren't busy."

"Oh...yeah, sure," Adira said and put the picture in her pocket. She got up, and they both made their way down to the kitchen.

"You miss your family a lot don't you?" Rin asked quietly, as they walked.

"Naturally..." she said with a shaky laugh. Adira was pretty good at hiding her emotions when she needed to, but when it comes to the death of her family, she can't seem to hide it. "But what about you? Both your parents passed away too, right?"

"Yeah..." he frowned. "Except I don't really know them. After my mom died, our old man took us in," Rin said, trying not to expose the truth about his father being Satan.

"Oh," Adira said,"I'm sorry-", but Adira suddenly clutched her neck, the burning feeling coming back to her. '_Damn it, what the hell?!'_

"Hey,"Rin said. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah,"she replied. "I'll be fine." Rin looked at her funny.

"Okay, then."

Yukio was already seated down in front of the kitchen, and was reading a book which was really thick and had a complicated looking cover.

Adira rubbed her throat as she sat down beside him.

"Are you okay?" he asked, the same as Rin.

"Yeah,"she muttered. Adira wasn't any genius, but she was sure that Yukio knew something about her that she didn't.

"You aren't vegetarian, are you?" Rin asked flipping his spatula.

"No, but I can't eat pork. And the meat has to be slaughtered in the name of God, too."

"You can't eat pork?!" Rin exclaimed. "You know that's kinda sad. Your religion has a lot of restrictions."

"Restrictions?" Adira laughed. "I never thought of it that way. Well, I'm really sorry. I could probably find a store around the corner that sells halal meat. And I'll pay too, so don't worry about it. I owe you guys one."

"Are you sure?"Yukio asked."We could pay for it-"

"Don't worry about it!" Adira repeated. "It'll be fine. Just give me a list of what you want me to buy. I'll be back in a jiffy. And about the pork, just tell me if you're going to make that, then I'll just buy my own food from somewhere else."

"Well, I guess thats okay," said Rin, scratching his already messy hair. "We are running out of meat anyway."

Adira sighed in relief. "Okay, I'll be right back!" she said after Rin scribbled down the ingredients. Adira ran off, and in a blur, she was gone.

Rin and Yukio looked after her, with their mouths slightly open.

"Did you see how fast she was?"Rin asked.

Yukio nodded, making a mental note.

"Yukio," said Rin suspiciously."You know something don't you? About Adira - what are you hiding?!" Rin knew Yukio the longest, and knows him very well, considering that he's his younger brother. "Well?" he demanded.

Yukio sighed, and pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose.

"Sorry, Nii-san. I can't tell you. It's classified information."

"Aha!" said Rin triumphantly, pointing his spatula at Yukio. "So you do know something!"

"The only thing I could tell you is, Adira is special. You noticed her clutching her throat, like she's in pain, right?" Rin nodded. "The fact that you are the son of Satan triggers that."

"Huh? But what does that mean?" Rin asked, puzzled."If you know that, then Mephisto knows too, right? Why would he put her in the same dorm as us, then?"

"Sorry, Nii-san. I can't. It's classified," Yukio repeated.

"But I'm causing her to be in pain!"

"It's only for the better for her." Yukio sighed again.

"What the hell! Could you at _least_ explain to me-"

"I'm back!" Adira suddenly appeared at the door, screeching to a halt. "I told you I'd be quick!"

'_Did she run _all _the way and back?!' _Rin looked at her flabbergasted. Adira handed Rin bags of meat.

"Here is all the stuff," she grinned.

"Oh, thanks," Rin muttered. "I'll start making the food. Hey Ukobach!" Rin called. "Start setting things up!"

Adira looked at Ukobach interestingly as he emerged. "Is he a demon?"Adira asked curiously, pointing.

"Oh yeah!" Rin said."Ukobach - this is Adira. She will be staying with us for awhile, so make the food extra good! Adira - this is Ukobach. He is a really good cook, so don't worry about a thing!"

Adira waved at the little demon, and it grinned and waved back.

Yukio smiled, as Adira watched Rin and Ukobach cook, in awe.

"Rin was always a good cook - ever since he was little!" Yukio told her.

"I suck at cooking!" Adira exclaimed. "I never really tried, actually. Not that I'm good at anything really..." she scratched her head.

"Oh yeah?" Yukio raised his eyebrows. "You're a fast runner."

Adira shrugged."I was never actually good at running, before a couple of years ago. The only natural talent I have is drawing. I'm not so bad, if I say so myself," Adira grinned.

After a short wait, Rin and Ukobach were ready with the food.

"Thanks!" Adira said, and muttered a prayer before she dug in. "You'd think this was made in heaven!" she said with her mouth full.

"Oh, it's nothing," Rin said a little embarrassed, scratching the back of his head.

After they were all done eating, Adira helped Ukobach wash the dishes and they went up to Rin and Yukio's room.

"So, Adira," Yukio said, sitting on a chair by his desk. Rin lay on his bed with his arms behind his head, and Adira plopped down on the floor. "We barely know anything about you, and you'll probably stay with us for awhile, so tell us about you."

"About me...?"Adira looked at him with confusion. '_Is this what friends do? Talk about eachother? But what do I say? Does it matter?' _Adira's head swam with questions as she worried. '_I guess I'll start small, then'_

"Okay,"Adira took a deep breath."I was born on April first, and my favorite color is blue-"

"Sorry," Yukio said, with a smile."Thats not what I meant. I mean, how was life in general for you when you were young."

'_He's really serious...is he gonna take notes on me or something?! Why so specific...?'_

She had to admit she wasn't too happy about telling them about her past, it being so depressing, but Adira grinned, and tucked her legs in. "It's a long story, so kick back, relax and enjoy the show!"

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**SO YEAH. Thats the second chapter. I hoped you liked it, and that it's long enough to satisfy you guys. :P Please review, and tell me what you think. Also, if there are any spelling/grammatical errors or things that make no to little sense, tell me as well, and I'll correct it if I'm not being a lazy jerk. THANKS FOR READING AND I HOPED YOU ENJOYED IT.**

***gives you another cookie for being totes amazing* (don't worry the cookies are homemade, so they're all fresh :D)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello! Hope everyone is well. Sorry for the late update. Since school started, I'm getting lots of homework, so I **_**try **_**to fit in a small chunks everyday (of the chapter) if I can. So in this chapter you get to know more about Adira's past and how she was as a kid. After this chapter you will probably know where this is going ;) Hopefully I didn't spoil **_**too **_**much. Thanks for reading! :D Also, if you're wondering why I don't name my chapters, it's because I don't feel like coming up with a legit name for it and it's too much work. lol, I'm lazy, sorry about that...**

***I donut own the Blue Exorcist**

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Chapter 3

"It had all started on my first day of Kindergarten in an elementary school," Adira started, with her legs and arms crossed. "My parents came with me to my classroom to meet the teacher and all that. Some fifth graders were lurking behind the kindergarten portables for some reason, and saw us. My mom used to wear a headscarf too, but I didn't at that time because I was really little." Adira explained. "But racism was pretty high in the area I lived in...so you could probably guess what happened next. I was all by myself during recess, and the same fifth graders came up to me..."

* * *

_"__Hey, little girl!"_

_Adira looked up from her drawing paper._

_"__Wh-what?" she stuttered. _

_"__You're Muslim right?" One of the thugs snorted. He punched his fist into the palm of his hand. "Go back to your country!"_

_"__That's right!" Another said. There was a total of four - two boys, and two girls._

_"__Huh?" Adira shrunk._

_"__Don't play dumb!" One of the girls said, pointing. "We'll beat the crap out of you, until you leave!"_

_Adira stood up, clutching her crayons, her eyes wide, and afraid. She couldn't really remember what happened next...she opened her eyes, finding herself lying in the nurse's office with bruises and cuts over her arms and face. She could hear her parents talking with the school's principal._

_"__...the kids told me she went berserk...eyes turned red...blue flames..."_

_Adira lay stiff, listening as hard as she could. She tried moving her left arm, but the pain was incredible. She looked down, and gasped. Her arm was in a cast and bandages. _'No way...I broke my arm?! What just happened...?'

_Adira's parents walked in the room._

_"__C'mon Adira," her mother said with an assuring smile. "We're going home."_

* * *

"By the end of the week, the rumors already went around the school," Adira said. "No one stayed near me...except the bullies. That weird thing that happened on the first day of school never happened again, but no one forgot it. Not everyone was racist, but the incident kept people away from me. I figured that if I'm going to deal with bullying all the time, I'd fight back," Adira frowned. "It wasn't the best decision, and I regret it too, because it made my reputation even worse. Not only that-it felt horrible too. We were just kids, we had no idea what we were doing. But what crap teachers taught us about how violence isn't the answer? Bullshit. Well at least that how it was back there. I would come home with at least one more injury. Everyone stayed away from me-I never made a friend once in my life," she looked down, pink with embarrassment. "I guess I was pretty scary, huh?"

Rin was staring at Adira with his mouth dropped open. '_Blue flames...is she also part demon? How? Is it linked to what Yukio said yesterday? But, then she's also a lot like me...' _He looked at Yukio to see any signs of recognition, but he seemed unfazed of what Adira said, and continued to listen to her.

"A few years later, we moved, and got this really big house," Adira continued. "I wasn't really much of a troublemaker, but my little brother, Hakim, and I thought it was a great idea to climb the roof, to get to the top," she said with obvious sarcasm. "It was the most dumbest thing I have ever done in my life..." Adira sighed and put her head in her hands.

* * *

_"__Okay Hakim, you ready?" eleven year old Adira asked with a grin._

_"__Yep!" he said, giving her a thumbs up, with an identical grin._

_Adira hoisted Hakim up first, and waited till he was a good distance ahead of her. _'Okay...here I go!'

_As she started to climb, she heard Hakim let out a small yelp, and looked up to him slip, and slowly fall backwards. On sudden impulse she let go and held out her left arm under him, crashing on the floor, with Hakim on top of her. She felt a twist in her arm and a pop in her shoulder. Some blood trickled from her knee on to the concrete floor, and felt herself slowly falling unconscious. The last thing she heard was Hakim looking down at her, screaming her name._

_Adira woke up in a hospital, her left shoulder and arm in a cast, and her knee bandaged. As soon as she opened her eyes, she felt Hakim throw his arms around her, sobbing, about how sorry he was. Adira laughed, and ruffled his hair. _

_"__It's okay...at least you're okay, right?" Adira looked up and saw her parents, and waited for the lecture to start. Instead her mother also crushed her, along with Hakim._

_"__Thank god, you're alright..." she said with tears forming in her eyes. Adira's father smiled, but shook his head at the same time._

_"__What am I going to do with you?" he said, laughing, but suddenly frowned. "The doctor said you broke your arm, and dislocated your shoulder, but your knee should be fine. They did surgery for your shoulder while you were unconscious."_

_Adira felt her stomach do a summersault. _'I just had surgery...?'

_"__Well, you did fall from the roof," Adira's father said scratching his head. "But at least you saved your brother...he only got a couple bruises on his arms and legs. Adira sighed in relief._

_"__So...aren't I going to get yelled at?" Adira asked._

_"__We'll cut you some slack and not lecture you," her mom said, grinning. "But the both of you can't play on your DSi for a month!"_

_"__Wh-What?!" the two siblings said in unison. "You can't do that!"_

_"__Oh, but I just did," she said, with a glint in her eye. Adira and Hakim knew better than to talk back to their mom, and gulped, glancing at each other._

"I may have saved Hakim, but in return I dislocated my left shoulder, and broke my arm again," Adira said. "But I have feeling that if I let Hakim fall, he would've gotten worse injuries." She smiled at her stupidity as a kid.

* * *

"You dislocated your shoulder?!" Rin asked in awe. "By falling off a roof?"

Adira actually laughed. "That's right...but I dislocated it _again _by falling down a couple flights of stairs in the same house, the following year," she half grinned. "I know it's weird, but ever since the day my shoulder healed (for the second time) I always wore bandages around it. It makes me feel safe...I'm still a bit sensitive. But the weird part was that every injury I got-it healed quicker than expected. A few months would shorten to a few weeks; weeks to days," Adira looked up, and rubbed her shoulder. She stopped, and suddenly frowned, nodding her head back down, her eyes shaded by the tip of her headscarf.

"And then the year after that...they died," she murmured. "My family, I mean. I just woke up one day, and found them dead, they were stabbed right on the heart," Adira snapped. "And just like that they were gone. I actually don't remember much before, and after the incident. I don't know how they died, what happened or anything like that. I just know that after they were gone, I was treated even worse..." she shuddered. "I started ditching my classes, and got into this phase of complete depression - I lost everything dear to me. It felt as though my soul was getting sucked out by my emotions. But, I knew that the dead can't be brought to life, and I couldn't do anything about it." Adira sighed. "So I just went along with it...blocked out my senses and bad emotions, and tried to see the good in everything. It's kinda hard to do that though, living in an orphanage...hey, but now that I think of it, it started getting really weird after that. This might sound really strange, but you've got to believe me; I accidentally flipped a car with one hand, and always finished my mile under five minutes in school. People thought I was some sort of monster, forget the racism. It was horrible. They moved me into an orphanage for troubled kids, but couldn't find out anything wrong with me."

Rin looked at Adira with an expression mixed with sympathy, but also confusion. He smiled at her. "Don't worry about it, we believe you. The same thing happened to me. It shouldn't bother you, but don't make it too obvious." _'Adira-san is clearly part demon...somehow, one way or another. She obviously doesn't know it, but Mephisto and Yukio...they definitely know somethings up. If they don't tell her, then should I?'_

"Really?" Adira looked up with hope in her eyes.

"Yeah!" he grinned. "Trust me."

He almost blurted something about being a demon, but Yukio nudged Rin in the ribs from saying anything else. Rin stared at Yukio, trying to give him a message, but Yukio gave him a glance of warning. '_Okay, this is really weird...maybe Satan had another kid or something...? No way, that's impossible! I mean, clearly she had parents who took care of her...whats going on?' _

"_Hey Rin! Who's the girl?"_ It was Kuro, the old mans familiar which Rin kind of 'inherited' from him. Kuro was asleep on Rin's desk, but awoke when heard Adira talking.

"Oh hey, Kuro. This is Adira. She will be staying with us for awhile now..." Rin stopped, and looked at her. Adira's mouth opened and stared at Kuro.

"The cat...why does it have two tails? And I _swear _I heard it talk! Is it just me or...?" Adira looked at Rin, with a questioning gaze.

"Ummm..." Rin glanced at Yukio. "...yeah! It's supposed to talk!"

"It's Rin's familiar," Yukio said, as if trying to change the subject.

"Familiar?" Adira asked, and decided not to prob about the cat talking. She was 99.999% Rin was lying, because she was a pretty good liar herself.

"A familiar is a demon summoned by someone to assist in battle or combat."

"Oh...so what about Ukobach?"

"Ukobach is Mephisto's familiar," Yukio explained. Adira nodded, and kneeled up to Kuro.

"Hi!" Adira said. "I'm Adira, what's your name?"

She had to admit, it was weird talking to a cat, but she was intrigued. And who the hell doesn't want to talk to a cat?

"_I'm Kuro!"_ the black cat said, excitedly. "_Do you have any food? I'm really hungry!"_

"Sorry, not at the moment," Adira said, amused. "What about Rin? He's a good cook, right (and a good owner, I bet)?"

"_Yeah, hey Rin, can I have catnip wine?"_

"Sure, Kuro," Rin looked back at Adira, before leaving the room to get catnip wine, with Kuro.

"I wonder," Adira mumbled. "Is that how it is to have a friend? It looks like fun, huh?" she said out loud. Adira got up, stretched, and yawned loudly.

"I'm going to bed. I'm not a morning person, so I usually go early. And jet lag," she added. She waved a hand to Yukio, and was a step out the room.

"Wait," Yukio said rather seriously.

"Hmmm?" Adira rubbed her eyes, and looked back into the room.

"Was there anything else weird that happened to you...?"

"Huh?"

'_This guy is reading me like a book!'_

"Well, no," Adira said. "I met Mephisto after a while, and now I'm here."

"Oh, okay," Yukio almost seemed disappointed. '_I guess this is the only information I can work with right now,' _he thought.

"You're weird, you know?" Adira said, and left the room, yawning again.

'_What? I'm not weird!' _Yukio though, a bit disheartened.

Adira walked pass Rin and Kuro, who just got his catnip wine and was coming back to their room.

"I'm going to get some shut eye," Adira told Rin. "'Night."

"Yeah...good night, then," Rin said.

"Wait."

"Yeah?"

"Um, I wanted to say thanks, for making me feel better," Adira smiled. "It means a lot."

"Um, its no problem, really!" Rin said, embarrassed.

"Yeah, well, it's still a great deal to me..." Adira was starting to get a bit red, herself. "So, um, well, uh-I'll see ya tomorrow!"

They both looked at each other and suddenly started laughing, clutching their stomachs. When they both finally calmed down, Adira wiped a tear from her eye, still grinning, even though she had no idea what was so funny.

"Well, good night for real this time?" she said.

"Good night, for real," Rin said. They fist-bumped, grinning, and made their way.

Adira smiled and lazily walked up the flight of stairs, and dragged herself up to her room. She undressed, and changed into her pajamas, taking her hijab off too, letting her long, chocolate brown hair fall. Adira hadn't really cared for her hair much, only brushing it after, and before going to bed. She decided that Rin and Yukio weren't perverts, but just in case she put her hair up in a bun, and pulled up her hoodie to cover it. Adira collapsed onto the bed, putting her hands behind her head, thinking about the conversation she just had with the other two. She told them everything, how she felt, what happened, and they respected her. It felt amazing. Like-it was like having a friend, having someone to talk to, or to have fun with. She felt that burning sensation in her stomach again, but also that feeling of a mysterious bond that she felt when she first met Rin and Yukio. It overpowered the pain, and she felt happy.

Adira sighed. Tomorrow was her first day of cram school, and she was actually pretty nervous. She wondered if the kids in her class would accept her, or not. '_Well, who cares if they don't'_ she thought stubbornly. '_It's not like it matters-I've lived my whole life without a single friend anyway!' _But she knew that she was just reassuring herself if they really _do _reject her as a friend.

Adira collapsed on her bed and fell asleep right away...

* * *

Adira groaned as she heard the familiar ring of her alarm clock. She slapped the top of it, and the annoying buzz stopped. She opened an eye, and looked up to the ceiling, remembering that she was in her new dorm room in Japan. Her stomach jolted, and realized that today was her first day of school. She lazily glanced at her alarm clock, and then her eyes widened.

"Shit! I'm gonna be late!" Adira yelled, and threw off her blankets, washed up, dressed, and ran downstairs to kitchen, sliding to a stop.

"Mornin'," she said casually, in the middle of tying her tie.

"Good morning," Rin said with his mouth full of breakfast, looked up, and he didn't know why, but felt like the boys school uniform suited her better than what the girls' uniform looks like.

"Good morning, Adira," Yukio said. "Breakfast is on the table."

"Thanks," Adira said.

After finishing breakfast, the three of them arrived at school, and separated to their classes. Adira put her hands behind her head and whistled as she went to her first class. She promised herself to not to slack off during class, and start fresh. She wasn't _bad _at her classes, she just never tried.

Her classes were as boring as they were in America. At the beginning of each period she introduced herself as a new student ("You could _just _call me Adira, no honorifics," she would say). No one payed much attention to her (except maybe the history teacher who was beyond excited for having a transfer student from America), but she definitely got the usual weird looks. Adira let it slide, since she was used to it by now. At the end of the day she fell asleep _only _during first period, and got yelled at by the teacher, zoned out a bit during her last class and didn't realize that school was over. She was the last one to pack up, and before going out the door she heard the teacher call out after her,"Please don't zone out again, Adira! I'm letting you go this time since it's only your first day here, but-"

"Yeah, thanks, mister!" Adira ran out of the room (she swear she heard her teacher sigh in disappointment), knowing that she's going to be late for cram school. When she finally arrived in front of the nearest door, she stuck the key that Mephisto gave her, and turned. Her jaw dropped as she opened the door which lead to a long hallway, with tall doors, covered with geometric and floral designs. She opened the door to Room 1106, her first class of cram school, well, that's what Mephisto told her. She stepped into to classroom, and her jaw dropped lower, if that was even possible. Right in front of the entire class, standing there was Yukio, talking as if teaching the class. No, he _was _teaching the class. Yukio stopped talking, and turned to the surprised Adira.

"S-sorry I'm late," she stuttered, still unsure if Yukio actually _was _the teacher.

"Ah, Adira. You're finally here," he said. "I'm going to be your teacher for this class. Would you mind to introduce yourself?"

"Um, no," Adira said, still confused to why Yukio, was teaching a class filled with students the same age, maybe even older. "Hi. I'm Adira Yousuf," she said for the hundredth time, turning to the class. She raised her eyebrow. There were fewer kids than she'd expected-there were eight students in all, including her. First, there was Rin, his navy blue hair clipped up to keep out of his face while studying. Next to him there was a shy looking blonde girl, with emerald eyes, and a warm smile. On the right side of the room, there was a long purple haired girl, with polka-dot eyebrows and a consistent frown. In the back there was a short boy who was holding a puppet in his hand, unfazed by anything happening in the room. On the left side there was three other boys-one who looked like he came out of a punk rock band. He had a rebellious look (just like Rins) with a strip of blonde in the middle of his hair. He also had multiple piercings in his ears. Beside him was a boy with pink hair ('_why would anyone want to dye their hair pink?' Adira thought_) and eyes which looked like they were dreaming of something else in his mind. And finally there was an innocent looking boy, with glasses, and an almost completely shaved head.

After a couple seconds of introducing herself, she realized that everyone was staring at her, so she shoved her hands in her pockets, and quickly made her way to the back of the classroom and sat bent over with her head in her arms. '_Maybe if Yukio isn't looking I can take a nap without anyone realizing-'_

"Please sit up, Adira," Yukio said, as if reading her mind. Adira kept herself from rolling her eyes.

"Sorry Mr. Okumura," she said rolling her tongue. It felt weird calling someone the same age as her by their last name.

"Tch," she heard someone say. She looked up and saw the punk rock dude, glaring at her. She bored her eyes into his, and gave him the evil eye. She almost got up and yelled, 'You wanna go?!', but stopped herself and smirked at him instead. '_A new start huh?'_ she thought, remembering what she told herself in the beginning of the school day. '_Thats gonna be hard.' _She slouched over again with her eyes closed, and listened to Yukio talk with one ear, as the information poured out the other. '_C'mon, can't the bell ring already?' _Adira groaned. After what seemed like a trillion years of staring at her watch, the bell rang, and Adira stood up, almost out the door until-

"Adira may I talk to you for a second?" It was Yukio. '_Oh shit, I'm screwed. Will he quiz me on the stuff he talked about today? I wasn't even listening! I guess I should've...'_

"Yeah, whats up?" she asked, keeping her voice monotone.

"Well, every exorcist has to choose a meister before going into combat, so do you have any idea what you're going to be? Everyone else chose theirs a little while back, but Mephisto says that it's okay for you to choose one now."

Adira felt relieved that he didn't quiz her on anything but, "The hell's a meister?" Yukio explained the five classes as patiently as he could, and left Adira thinking: '_Man, we're gonna work with guns and shit like that?! This is serious! Well I'm not going to try out for aria, thats for sure, reading verses out of the bible just doesn't seem right to me if I'm Muslim. Being a doctor takes too long, and using guns is pretty scary. I can't summon anything, so I can't be a tamer, so that leaves knight. Not that using swords isn't as scary as using guns, but it seems pretty legit.'_

"Umm, I guess I'll be a knight then," Adira said, still a bit freaked out that she's going to be using a real sword.

"Just like Rin, huh?" Yukio said, and scribbled something down on a piece of paper.

"He's a knight, too?" Adira asked curiously.

"Yeah. Its just that his sword is...er...taken away from him at the moment. But he usually has it slung over his shoulder," Yukio said, shaking his head. "All right. Here, you could use one of the swords that the higher ups use to fight demons." He handed her a sheathed blade with a beautiful engraving on the hilt.

"Huh?" Adira took the sword and examined it. She looked up. "But why?"

"Trust me-you'll need it soon enough."

"Umm, okay," Adira strapped it behind her, on the belt of her pants, unlike Rin. She made it so instead of unstrapping the sword before unsheathing it, she could easily reach back, and unsheathe it that way. "So do I keep this?"

"Yeah," Yukio said, arranging the classes assignments, and looked up. "Thats all I needed to say-you are dismissed to lunch now."

"Okay, thanks, I guess," Adira made her way around the school campus looking around, and still couldn't believe how big the area was. She jumped on top of a fountain and lay on the highest step, with her hands behind her head. '_Whaddya know, I'm all alone again...well I am tired, maybe I can sleep a little bit...'_

"Hey!" someone called. Adira sat up, surprised. It was those three guys in her previous class. The guy with the pink hair waved at her. '_Huh? What do they want?'_ Adira jumped down from the fountain. She crossed her arms and glared at the punk haired guy, and he glared right back.

"Bon...don't tell me you've already made enemies with her!" the shorter guy with the almost bald head said.

"C'mon Konekomaru-kun, you can't just make assumptions like that!" the pink haired guy smiled at Adira.

"I don't know Shima-kun-"

"Oh, shut up!" Bon said, still staring Adira down.

"So...are you seeing anyone, Adira-chan?" Renzo asked quickly. '_Huh? As in dating someone?' _Adira burst out laughing, clutching her sides, and wiped her eyes. Poor Shima looked at Adira with a confused expression on his face. '_These guys really don't know anything, do they? This guy seems pretty desperate though-you wouldn't expect that to be the first thing you would say to a girl. Wait...'-chan'? What does that mean again?'_

"Why would anyone want to date _me_ in the first place?" she asked, still chuckling to herself. "But if you're gonna ask, sorry but no. Muslims can't date," Adira pointed to her headscarf. Renzo looked disappointed; Adira almost felt bad for him. "And it's just Adira - no '-chan'."

However, he looked up hopefully. "You know, you would look a lot cuter if you actually wore the girls uniform...?" Adira's face grew bright red. '_Cut_er_? Man, what a perv...'_

"Thanks, but no thanks," Adira said. '_This is getting old already...I feel sorry for the girls who seem really attractive to guys.'_

"Hey!" Someone yelled. The four heads turned simultaneously-it was Rin, and the blonde chick trailing after him. "Whats up?"

"Hi," Adira said with a little wave.

"Oh!" Bon said smirking. Despite their previous conversation, he said,"So Okumura, is Adira your second girlfriend?" Adira's mouth twitched, and Rin's face heated up. '_They obviously got something against each other if Bon would say that to him, after talking just now.' _Adira shook her head.

"She isn't my girlfriend!" Rin yelled at him

"Oh, yeah?" Ryuji smirked. They both yelled at each other, and Adira nudged Konekomaru. "Hey, what's with them?"

"They've been having a rivalry ever since the first day of class. They're so alike, they repel each other!" Konekomaru explained.

Shima laughed to himself. "It's kinda funny."

"Whatever, I'm outta here," Adira said, walking away. "I get into enough trouble already."

"Where are _you_ going?" Ryuji said. "I haven't finished things with you yet, slacker!" Adira balled her fists. '_Old habits die hard, right?' _

Adira turned,"What the hell, man? What did I ever do to you?"

"You really piss me off, thats what!" he snapped back. "Why are even here, anyway?"

"Calm down, Bon," Shima said, holding him back.

'_Why am I...here? Why _am _I here?!' _For once, Adira couldn't think of anything to say, and looked at Ryuji with a blank expression on her face. "I don't...know..."

Suguro stopped struggling against Shima and Konekomaru. "...huh?"

The gang almost forgot about Shiemi who was hanging in the back. "Umm...I-I..." Shiemi started to say. '_Maybe Adira and I can be friends! She's a lot like me, in a way,'_ Shiemi thought hopefully, but her voice got drowned out by the argument the rest were having.

Rin got up from the ground, after being knocked down by Bon. "Hey. Knock it off," he told him.

Adira snapped back into reality. '_Why...why is he sticking up for me?'_

"No, it's okay," she said, and looked at Ryuji. "If you want an explanation, then I'll tell you. I don't have a clue why I'm here. Mephisto shipped me here from America, saying that I'll be some help, or something," Adira turned around. "I only agreed because he said that he'll tell me something about my family's death...and it's the only reason why _I'm _here-I don't know what Mephisto wants with me." Adira started walking away, her hands in her pockets. "I don't have time to waste with you." Adira didn't know what overcame her - a wave of guilt? Frustration? She shook it off, and hoisted herself on fairly short tree, leaning back on its trunk. Adira sighed. '_Well I was kinda rude...'_ she admitted. '_Maybe I should say sorry or something. Ehh, screw it, I have to deal with them for the rest of the year anyway, so we'll make up.'_

Surprisingly, the bell rang, signaling the students to go to third period. For Adira, third period was Physical Education, and she hated it. Not that she wasn't bad at it. She jumped down from the tree, still as tired as ever, but knew that even in any circumstance her speed would be unbelievable. Adira grinned. '_Let's teach 'em how its done.'_

* * *

**Okayyy so thats the end of chapter 3. I kinda ended it abruptly because I wanted to give you guys this chapter sooner, and I didn't really know when to end it if I continued this chapter. So yeah. I hope you enjoyed it! Please review and all that stuff! :D Thanks!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hellllooooo! Okay so sorry I haven't been updating so often (lol you guys probably have something better to do anyway, other than waiting around for the next chapter), long story short; I go to school, come home, then I waste an hour moping around about homework, I take a shower, eat food, actually **_**do **_**my homework, then waste hours of my life watching anime and doing other time wasting things. We get so many assignments in school, it's unbelievable T-T I barely get any time to work on this. Well, I don't want to write an autobiography or anything, so here is the next chapter! Oh, wait also I wanted to point out that the story takes place right after episode 13, "Proof"(when he meet Shura and stuff) and right before 14, "A Fun Camping Trip" (...the camping trip thing...duh). And, yes, I know I made a mistake in the first chapter because Shura takes Rin's sword away from him in the anime, but Rin has his sword in my writing, so I will go and fix that. ^_^ Also It would really help if you guys can write down a quick review tell me if I'm getting out of character or not, and constructive criticism. I won't be offended if you're a harsh judge, everything you guys say will help :) **

**btw, chapters will probably take me a long time to update, like how this one did, so don't expect it to come really often. Thanks, and I hope you understand! **

***I donut own the Blue Exorcist**

* * *

Adira got into a ready position after the whistle was blown by their P.E. teacher, Kauro Tsubaki. "I hope you're good," Adira called to the purple-haired chick, Izumo, who she was running against.

"I won't disappoint," Izumo said back silkily, flipping her hair in a proud manner. Adira sighed, frowning. '_That's what they all say...well at least something like that.'_

"Now girls, this isn't a race!" their P.E. coach said. '_But, really, who doesn't treat it like a race?' _Adira thought. '_Everything is about competition, and beating the other side...' _Adira grimaced. '_Oops, I'm getting pretty deep...I don't have the brains to think right now, and I'm _hungry! _I should've ate something before this instead of moping around...whatever I'll eat later, I guess. Speaking of food-'_

"Adira!" a voice yelled, "Watch out! The reaper is right behind you!" Adira looked up, irritated that someone interrupted her thinking. It was Rin, waving frantically, pointing behind her. Coach Tsubaki had already blown the second whistle, and Izumo was far up ahead, smirking at Adira. Her eyebrow twitched in irritation. She glanced back and saw the large demon taking a leap, and-

'_Oh, shit!_' Adira snapped out of her ready position ('_Have I been really bending down like that the _entire _time? I must've looked like an idiot!'), _stumbled over a bit, and broke into a sprint, not really caring about her form, but running for her life instead. She caught up with Izumo quickly, and grinned in satisfaction as she saw Izumos surprised expression, as she passed her. Adira looked back in front of her, this time perfecting her stance as she ran-slightly curled fingers, keeping a straight pace, and closing her eyes focusing on only hearing the sound of her feet hitting the ground to even it out. After a few seconds of doing this, she opened her eyes again, and suddenly felt the same burning sensation she had felt when meeting Rin. This happened every time she ran, and was used to it, and she knew deep inside, for some weird reason, the burning feeling gave her the ability to run faster. As her speed was increasing, the distance between Izumo and Adira was growing farther and farther apart, and Adira never felt so fired up before. But then suddenly, the sharp sound of the whistle indicated for the two runners to stop. Adira screeched to a halt, tripping over her own feet as she stopped. '_That barely lasted two minutes!' _She turned around confused, but then understanding dawned on her face. Coach Tsubaki frantically pulled the chains of the beast, with the whistle still in his mouth, to get it away from Izumo, who was panting with her hands on her knees. '_Crap, I did it again!' _Adira thought, frowning.

"Thats enough for now, girls!" Tsubaki called. "Class dismissed!" Adira sighed. '_We didn't even _do _anything!' _She walked over to the recovering Izumo, kneeled down, and held out a hand.

"Sorry about that. Hope I didn't wear you out that much," Adira said smiling.

Izumo looked up at her. '_What the hell is she?! That speed is unbelievable! Is she even human?' _Izumo turned her head away, going back to her usual self.

"Hmmph! I don't need pity from someone like you!" She got up, and climbed up the ladder-thing on the side of the arena. Adira stared after her, and put her hands up behind her head, pouting. '_Did I say something wrong? Isn't that the normal thing to do when something like that happens? Maybe her attitude just needs some polishing up...' _Adira walked over and climbed up after her.

"Dude, that was great!" Rin said, as she stood up.

"Yeah?" Adira grinned. "Thanks, but if it lasted a bit longer, I'd probably be proud of myself." She glanced at Izumo, who was already heading to their next class, frowning as she stared off into space.

"Y-yeah! You're really fast!" a quiet voice said. Adira looked over, and saw the short-haired blond girl.

"Thanks! Umm..." Adira scratched her head. '_Now, what's her name? Was it Sherry? No...hmm...Shanna!? No, that doesn't sound right either...'_

"Oh!" Adira bumped the side of her fist into her palm. "Thanks, Shiemi!" Shiemi beamed, and she went to tag after Izumo.

"How can a girl be _that_ fast?" Bon asked quietly. Hearing this, Adira then realized that Bon, Shima, and Konekomaru were still there, watching her run. She walked towards them and looked up to Bon.

"What?" He asked. "Looking for a fight?!"

"No," Adira said calmly. "I just wanted to say sorry for what happened today...I wasn't thinking." She thought back, knowing that she didn't really do anything wrong anyway, but...

"Huh?" Bon looked confused. "No it's okay, I should apologize too."  
"Whew! Okay, I'm glad thats over!" Adira let out a sigh of relief. "Saying sorry is hard work, you know."

"Ehh?"

"Nevermind," Adira grinned, and then let her voice drop into a whisper. "So whats with Izumo?"

Shima was beside Adira in a flash.

"If you want to know about Izumo," he said proudly, jabbing his thumb towards himself. "I'm the guy to ask!"

"Umm, okay...('_Stalker much?') _so what do you know?"

"She is sixteen years old, birthdate is on October eleventh, blood type A..."

Adira's eye twitched. "Umm, thats not what I meant-"

"She may be a little rude, but she is so cute~!"

"Errr..." Adira gave Shima a funny look. "I wasn't really looking for your love life, man..."

Shima went on, not knowing that Adira had said something.

"...is one hundred and sixty-five centimeters and two millimeters tall, weighs fifty kilograms..."

"How does he _know_ all that stuff?" Adira nudged Konekomaru.

"Shima is in a world of his own...we may never know," he said mysteriously.

"Hmm...yeah you're right. Well good luck with him," Adira went to walk with Rin to their next class.

"Hey."

"Oh, hey, Adira."

"You okay? You look a little down."

"Huh? No, I'm fine." Rin was still not sure of what to think about Adira. '_Sure she was easy to talk to-better than most girls he tried to converse with, but why did Mephisto bring her here? About what she said about the blue flames...is she really part demon? How does she run so fast? She's probably faster than me or Bon! Did she get something I didn't?' _The questions kept on coming...

* * *

**I KNOW THIS ONE WAS **_**EXTREMELY**_** SHORT COMPARED TO MY LATEST CHAPTER, BUT I HAD TO HAVE A GOOD STOPPING PLACE, SO BEAR WITH ME. And I knew that if I went on, it would be extremely long instead. But I promise, the next chapter will be more interesting, when stuff starts getting real when they go camping. :) And **_**please, please, please, **_**write a quick review for me(if its either a question, corrections for errors, etc)-it will be greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading! :D Also if you're a guest reviewing, thats totally okay, and I'll reply to you using this authors note down here.**

**Natsumo: Thanks a lot! Yeah I agree-I hope you enjoy the next chapters!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi guys! Here is Chapter five-I hope you like it! :D This chapter is kicking of with Adira's P.O.V-I wanted to see how it goes &amp; I was tired of typing the thoughts into quotations. (It starts from the beginning of episode fourteen- "A Fun Camping Trip")**

**Also, I decided to put in Japanese Honorifics, and make this fic more 'Japanese-like', if you know what I mean XD I've been watching a lot of anime with subtitles lately, and so I feel the need to do that XD It isn't a huge difference, and I also went over the previous chapters and added the honorifics in. So yeah, it didn't change much, because when I watched some episodes of it subbed, they didn't use honorifics that often when the exwires talked to each other. They mostly just talked to each other by using their last (or first, like with Konekomaru) name. However, in Adira's P.O.V since she comes from America, and we use the first names like 99% of the time, instead of her using the last name, she's going to be using the first name (i.e. Okumura will be Rin, Suguro/Bon will be Ryuji, Shima will be Renzo, and so on. I know that they aren't used very often in the actual anime, but it's more realistic in Adira's case. I hope you understand. Arigato ^.^). It would be **_**great**_ **if you guys can go over them and please tell me if I missed anything, or added them in wrong. Please, please, please. Oh, and also as I was reading the last chapters, I tweaked some things to make this seem more realistic. Like I asked myself, 'Would so and so really do that when so and so said this?' and stuff like that, so it would seem more believable. Just so you know if you see something different, but it won't have a humungous impact or anything. I also changed Kuro's speech from bold to italics, because I though that would be easier to identify. Thanks so much (for reading this long ass paragraph)!**

***I do not own the Blue Exorcist**

* * *

The chiming of the bell to indicate school was over, rung throughout True Cross Academy. Rin yawned as he walked down the steps of the vast school with me.

"Looks like I survived the first semester," he said, grinning.

"Kudos to you," I said, my eyelids drooping. "I had to catch up with _all _my studies, including cram school stuff. And my teachers were like, 'Adira, you have to try harder, or if you keep up with that crappy way of doing work, you'll stay a failure the rest of your life!'" I imitated. "But I try, I really do!"

"Did they really say that?" Rin asked stifling a laugh.

I smirked. "No, but I got the message."

"Hi Okumura, Yousuf!" Rin and I both turned to see who it was.

"Hey Konekomaru," Rin replied.

"Hey," I nodded to Konekomaru, Ryuji, and Renzo. The five of us stopped in front of the streets together looking out to the cars in traffic.

"Looks like all the regular students are heading home for summer break," Konekomaru finally said.

"Yeah," I muttered. I wondered if my classmates back at home ever thought of me, or realized that I had left. Maybe they had made up some rumors, or were celebrating. I didn't know what to think if they actually were doing so. I probably would've been upset if I knew them well enough, to be honest. But I still cringed at the thought.

"You guys come from Kyoto, right?" Rin was saying, excitedly. "That place sounds so cool!"

Ryuji snorted. "What's so _cool_ about it? Its just like any other town."

"Heck, we don't even know if we get to go home yet," Renzo said. I secretly hoped that we wouldn't have to go back. But I'm pretty much living here now, anyway.

We walked over to where Izumo was saying her goodbyes to her best friend, Noriko Paku (Renzo had introduced me to her, just in case you were wondering).

"You're heading home for the break too, huh?" Renzo asked Noriko. "It's gonna be lonely here!"

"See you guys next semester," Noriko said apologetically.

"Have a good break!" Rin said smiling at her.

"If you ever get the urge to hear my voice again," Renzo started, holding up a slip of paper, "you can call me-day or night!"

"You're such a moron!" Izumo yelled at him.

I sighed at Renzo, and facepalmed. What a flirt.

Noriko giggled. "You're funny."

We all then waved a goodbye to Noriko, and met up with Yukio and Shura.

"I'm sure you're all excited for summer vacation," Yukio said. "Well, you'll have to hold that thought, because for three whole days, you lucky exwires will get to participate in a field drill in the academy's training grounds in the forest. Of course, I'll be coming along. And so will Miss Kirigakure."

"Yoo-hoo," Shura said, opening and closing a hand. Wearing full sleeves and long pants (not to mention a head scarf) for my entire life, I was actually surprised to see someone like Shura around-just wearing a bikini top and super-short shorts. Don't get me wrong, I didn't mean this in an offending way, but when I saw her for the first time, I thought, '_Have you no shame?' _It was kind of a normal reaction for me, if you think of it. Despite her appearance, I actually liked Shura, because she had a quick way of words and had a super cool looking sword.

"Now, the purpose of this drill is to determine whether or not if you're ready to go out on missions," Yukio continued. "So, stay sharp!"

* * *

The exwires, and the two exorcists, got dropped off by the bus next to the opening of the forest.

"Yeah~!" Rin said. "This is gonna be so cool! It's like going on a picnic!"

"Oh, yeah," Renzo said dreamily. "I could see us all gathered around the campfire at night, learning folk dances...hehehe..."

I had to admit - I was nervous. It was my first time going out on an actual field drill, and I had no idea what was to be expected. I gripped the hilt of my sword and gulped. I had practiced in the batting cages of the academy, and only slain a few lower-class demons, but that was about it. I looked at the others - they seemed pretty care free about it (well not counting Renzo who just screamed when a spider had swung down next to him), and I smiled, shaking my head, loosening my grip on the blade. Honestly, what am I worrying about? I got my friends with me! My friends...? At least I hoped they accepted me as their friend. They were much nicer people than those back in my old school.

"What's so exciting about camping out in a forest?" I asked, as we starting walking to the campsite. "I mean, like...its no big deal or anything."

"Have you been camping before?" Konekomaru asked me.

I shrugged. "Kinda. In fifth grade we went on a field trip sorta thing to camp for a week. It was supposed to be educational, but all we did was get raided by a bunch of raccoons and a bear."

"No way!" Rin exclaimed.

"Way," I said, grinning, just warming up. "We were out in the forest, where we were sleeping in our tents and everything, but then we heard one of our advisors scream. We all got up to see what happened, because our advisors slept in another tent, and there was a huge rip in the tent they were sleeping in, indicating how the bear and its racoon friends got in. But it was only a cub-the bear I mean. They just took all of their food and ran for it. Camp was cancelled early for that," I snorted. "What a bunch of morons, allowing ten and eleven year olds to sleep in the open of a dangerous forest."

"Do you think a bear will come into our tents too?" Rin asked eagerly.

"No, stupid," Ryuji said. "This forest is protected from animals like that, and we're here to fight demons, not some bears."

"Ughh, its so hot," Renzo complained.

"And my pack is heavy," Konekomaru groaned.

"During the day the forest is peaceful," Yukio said. "But at night, it becomes a hot bed of lower-level demon activity. We have to set up base camp before the sun goes down. Pick up the pace!

"Look at that guy...isn't he hot in that coat?" Ryuji muttered.

"You heard him, get a move on!" Shura called from the back, arms behind her head.

"Um, ma'am? Where's your pack?" Renzo asked.

"Over there," Shura nodded towards Rin who had both his and Shuras packs.

"It's so cold!" Rin gushed, as he put his hands under running water falling from a cliff. "Is it safe to drink?"

"I dare you to," I said.

"Okay," Rin said shrugging, and cupped his hand under the water to drink.

"Wait...I was just kidding..." I started, but Rin had already drunk some out of his hands.

"Woah, its so good!"

"Really?! Fine, let me try it," I let the water into my cupped hands and poured some into my mouth. "Wow, no kidding!"

"Right?" Rin said grinning.

"I get the feeling that Okumura's energy is supernatural," Renzo said, smiling.

* * *

We _finally _made it to our campsite-fairly large area to stay for a couple of nights, I guess, but it was cool.

"Okay," Yukio said all officially and stuff. "The boys will help me put up the tents, and the girls and Miss Kurigakure will draw the magic circle around the tents. After that, they will prepare dinner."

Hell yeah! The rest of the words flew out of my head after I heard that we get to _draw_ something.

"Here's the paint **(A/N I know that Shiemi used paint, though Izumi also had this huge protractor thing, but I have no idea what that is)**..." Shura tossed us some buckets, and I lunged over to catch them.

"Aren't you going to help us?" I asked, rubbing the bristles of the brush.

"Nah. You girls can do it by yourself fine," she said holding up a gameboy, and jumping up to the lowest branch of a tree. That was fine with me; the less people helping, the more I get to paint. I pulled up my sleeves to an extent, and we started to dip our brushes into the white paint, and carefully started applying it to the dry, dirt floor of our campsite.

Shiemi laughed, as she looked at the others setting up the tents. "This is fun."

"How is it fun? It's so hot..." Izumo replied. "How do you survive wearing that?" she asked, me pointing to my headscarf.

I shrugged. "Pretty used to it by now," I looked up. "And trust me, it barely makes a difference while wearing a headscarf in the heat, and if you don't."

"Oooh," Shiemi said, and then laughed again. "Aren't the guys weird?" she asked, and we looked over to where Rin accidently knocked down the tent again.

"You're the only weird one here, if you ask me," Izumo said. Okay, so those two clearly have something between each other. Maybe a fight? Nah, Shiemi was too caring and sweet...Izumo definitely doesn't like her that much though, you could see it in her eyes.

"Aren't you guys done yet?" Shura asked from above.

"No way!" I said dreamily. "This is a work of _art_, be patient!"

"We're literally painting a bunch of circles on dirt," Izumo muttered. "Everyone is so weird..."

We finished painting the magic, and Shura sighed and said, "Okay, get the food on the fire-"

"Wait, what?" I yelped. "I can't cook for _shit_!"

Shura shrugged still pressing buttons on her gameboy. I groaned, and we started setting things up; I looked at the back of one of the boxes which had all the instructions. I grabbed a knife with one hand and a carrot with another. I grinned as I tossed the knife up, and barely caught it by the handle.

"What are you, a kid?" Izumo asked as I swore when I accidently cut myself, as I attempted to throw it again, but instead catching it by the tip.

"I can't take this anymore..." Rin stood up. "Give me that." I handed him the carrot and the knife I was throwing, and watched in awe as he flourished the knife, and cut the carrot into perfect pieces.

"How...?" I wondered aloud.

"You know, cooking is also a form of art," Rin told me as he slid the carrots into a pot of boiling water. "And practice does make perfect." When he told me this, I didn't know that Rin could be so serious about something so simple.

He looked up defensively, as if reading my mind, "What?"

I smirked at him, "Nothing."

After Rin finished making the food, we all sat around the fire, "Lets eat!"

"Woah, what the hell!" Ryuji said as he took a bite. "This is _good_!"

"Your wife will have no chance..." Renzo said.

"Okumura-kun, you're really good at cooking!" Konekomaru said.

"So tasty!" Shiemi said.

Rin laughed, embarrassed,"Well..."

"Cooking is the only productive activity my poor brother can do!" Yukio said.

"Shut up, four-eyed mole faced," Rin glowered. I laughed, and suddenly felt...different. It was that burning sensation, but it wasn't painful, it was warm, in a good way. It was as if I was experiencing something I've never felt before. I racked my brain to figure out what it was..._friendship_...yeah, thats what it was. I looked up, and saw Rin, he was thinking the same thing, you could tell by his expression, and that he'd experienced something very similar to me. The feeling of being rejected by others who thought they were superior to you, or that you were different. Yeah...I popped open a can of soda, and started to chug down the contents. When I finished, I let out a satisfied breath, and crushed the can beneath my fingers.

"All right!" I said tossing the can, stretching.

After we were all done eating, Yukio gathered us around the fire. "Now let me tell you the rules and details of this field drill," he started.

"It's a test of courage, I'll tell ya," Shura said, red in the face, shaking her can of booze.

"Shura," Yukio said, gritting his teeth. "You're on duty."

"Huh?!" Ryuji exclaimed. "The chick said that she's eighteen, she's a minor!"

"Eighteen? What are you talking about? This year she's turning twenty-si-" Yukio was stopped from a can that hit the side of his head.

"Whoops," Shura muttered. "My hand slipped."

"Do your goddamn work..." Yukio said quietly, pushing his glasses up to the bridge of his nose.

"Look, I made him mad!" Shura said gleefully, waving her arms.

"Is she what you call 'drunk'?" I asked Rin, whispering. "And your brother is scary when he's mad."

"I know, right?" Rin laughed.

"Okay, I'll explain now," Yukio said, pushing his glasses up to the bridge of his nose. "There are three lanterns hidden in the forest around us, which you are to light. There are located within five-hundred meters of our camp-site. Those who can bring back the lamp without the fire extinguishing by the next three days can take part on official missions." Everyone perked up after he said this...well not including me, to be honest with you. Everyone here has a purpose for why they want to become an exorcist. They all want to pursue their dreams, but me...I don't even know what to do with my life. I felt like one of those clueless high schoolers who don't know what to major in. Mephisto brought me here because he said that I'd become a good exorcist, or something like that...I closed my hands into fists. I guess the only thing to do is to become an exorcist to see what he really means. I looked up, determined. And also to find out about my family and how they were murdered...the truth of what really happened.

"...there are only three slots opened," Yukio was saying.

"But that means-" Izumo gasped. This unfazed me. I grinned, there's always a catch to these sort of things. Very cliche. Yukio went on, explaining the contents of the shoulder bag we would use. He told us that the best way to succeed 'is to use your own abilities to the fullest'. Whatever, man.

The eight of us shouldered our bags, and stood up, looking at eachother.

"This training is designed to turn us against each other," Konekomaru said. "But if we do that...

"We'd be at each others throats," Izumo completed.

"Every man for himself," Ryuji said, as we stood on the magic circle. "No helping each other."

"There are only three lanterns after all," Izumo said. "Of course I'll do my best."

"Just don't take it as an offence," Renzo said.

Everyone was extremely tense, as I looked around.

"Okay, get to your positions," Yukio said, and held up a gun, pointing straight to the sky. "Ready..." He pulled the trigger, indicating for us to start. We all ran straight ahead into the forest with our flashlights on, and right as I stepped in the depth of trees, a swarm of blood-sucking moths bombarded me.

"Are these demons?" I muttered, and unsheathed my sword, slicing through the large insects. "Gross!" the small demons were incinerated by the touch of the blade, but as soon as I cut the last one, I heard a ear-splitting scream.

"Shiemi!" Yeah, it was definitely Shiemi, and she was definitely in trouble. Instinctively I ran to the sound, but as I did, up ahead I saw a flash of blue...light? Or was it fire? It didn't matter, because right after the blue-whatever-it-was erupted, that same burning sensation in the pit of my stomach came up again, but this time it was a million times worse. It felt as though fire was eating away at my stomach. I dropped my sword, immediately grabbed the water bottle in my bag and poured the contents down my throat hoping to ease the pain. I had drained the water bottle, but I was sure that wasn't the reason the pain stopped. I bent over, and started to cough; I covered my mouth with my hand, and hacked up some blood. I stared at the red pool in my hand, and I could barely see my reflection in it. I squinted, something catching my eye. I wasn't sure if it was my imagination...but my eyes, I _swear_ my pupils turned red. Maybe it was just the color of the blood playing with my vision. I wish. I stood back up, smearing the blood on the front of my True Cross Academy uniform shirt. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, drying the drops of water.

"Are you okay?" I jumped, and turned around. It was Ryuji. He was panting, you could tell that he was running, and that he had just arrived...thankfully he didn't see me. "The scream-"

I nodded. "It was Shiemi."

"Lets go."

I sheathed my sword, and we both ran, until finally we had cleared into a small opening; Rin was over Shiemi trying to shake her awake. She seemed in pretty bad condition-unconscious (well, obviously, I mean, I just said that Rin is trying to get her awake), a trickle of blood coming down from her forehead.

"The blue light!" I blurted. "What was that blue light?" Yeah, I know what you're thinking, 'Wow Adira, how inconsiderate of you! Shiemi is really hurt!' I know, I know, but that blue light-I swear that it came from this direction, and that Rin would know something about it. And it just seemed too important to miss.

For a split second, Rin freaked. It was difficult to notice, he covered it up quickly, but his feint wasn't very effective. "Huh? What blue light? I didn't see any blue light," Rin waved his arms around. "Hehehe..." Okay, so at this point, it was obvious that Rin knew something, and it was obvious that it wasn't very good.

"Forget that for now, is Moriyama-san okay?" Ryuji said.

"Yeah, I think so" Rin said. "But she's unconscious."

"Turn off your flashlight, already," Ryuji said, irritated. "The light attracts the moths."

"O-oh, right." Rin switched it off. "Um, why are you guys here, anyway?"

"Well, to help her, of course," Ryuji said, bluntly.

"But you specifically said that we can't help each other," Rin stated, pointing.

I smirked. "He's right, you did say that."

"Shut up!" Ryuji yelled. "I can't just stand around when I hear a girl scream like that!"

"Are you turning into a ladies man?" I asked. "Maybe you should stop hanging around with Renzo."

"Shut the hell up-!"

"Rin...?" Shiemi finally awoke, but then suddenly jumped. "Nee-chan!" she help up her ripped magic circle, tears in her eyes. I'm pretty sure 'Nee-chan' is her familiar. The little, green, mushroom thing had always been hanging around on top of Shiemi's head during class.

"Don't worry about it! If you just use your magic circles that you drew on paper, you can get him back," Ryuji said.

"Oh, thats right!" Shiemi rummaged through her pack. "It's missing...it must've fell out when I got attacked by the huge moth..."

I held up my hand to indicate silence. "Shh..." I then pointed to the bushes in front of us which started to rustle. I gripped the hilt of my sword.

"Hit the dirt!" Rin said holding up his wooden sword. A figure jumped from behind the bushes, and Rin blocked it by his sword. We turned to see who it was, and it was Renzo, Ryuji held him up by the collar of his shirt, flashlight on, held by his teeth.

"Shima?!"

"Oh, hey, Bon. What's everyone doing here? Just hanging out?"

"What are _you_ doing here?! And turn that off!" Ryuji pointed to his flashlight.

"Oh-" Renzo switched off his flashlight. "Well a hoard of moths covered me up...and I don't really know what happened after that..."

"Yeah, typical Shima," Ryuji muttered, and then his phone started to beep. "Huh?"

"Hey, mines ringing too!" They pulled out their phones.

"It's Konekomaru. He found a lantern!"

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah. But he can't do it alone...he's asking for our help," Ryuuji said, holding up his phone.

* * *

"Holy crap, thats _huge_!" I exclaimed, when we arrived to where the lantern was.

"Woah..." Renzo said. "Yeah, there's no way you could lug this back to camp all by yourself."

It really was big. I'm pretty sure that any of us can just go up, and climb inside of the thing.

"_This _is supposed to be a lantern?" Rin said.

"Is it a stone lantern?" Shiemi asked, hand to her mouth.

"Its a peg lantern," Ryuji said. "It waits in the night for someone to light it, and then it starts moving around. It eats living things for fuel. It especially likes girls."

Shiemi gasped.

"Ehhh," I groaned.

"Its a demon that will only stop when it runs out of fuel, or if the sun comes up."

"Once I saw it, I realized that we misunderstood the real purpose of this drill," Konekomaru said.

"Yeah..." Ryuji said. "In this drill we have to work together."

"Waaiit a second, Bon," Renzo said, grinning. "You specifically said that we can't help each other out."

"Look, I didn't know what he meant when he said that there were only three slots available!"

"He's got a point," Konekomaru said. "Okumura-sensei didn't say three _people_."

"It's also common sense," I pointed out. "I mean, in one of your other drills, didn't he basically strand you in a room to make you guys work together? Why would he suddenly make you guys go against each other?"

"How do you know that?" Ryuji asked.

I shrugged. "He told me."

"Whatever," he said. "We're in this together. Do any of you guys know Kamiki's or Takara's phone numbers?"

We all shook our heads.

"I tried asking Izumo-chan, but she always turned me down," Renzo said, glumly. We all groaned at him.

"I-uh, sorta came up with a formation in which the six of us can carry it out," Konekomaru said raising a hand.

"Okay," Konekomaru stuck a seal on the lantern. "This is how we're going to seal it to keep it from moving around once it's lit. Then Bon will recite the corresponding scripture since he's already got it memorized," Konekomaru lit up a flashlight, attracting a flock of moths. "We'll need to gather up lots of chuchi to feed it. We'll need a constant supply from keeping the light from going out," he handed the flashlight to Shiemi. "Thats Moriyama-san's job." Shiemi nodded. Konekomaru lit a candle and tossed it into the lantern, sitting on the wheelbarrow thing.

"Incoming!" Renzo yelled, as a whole bunch of moths swarmed towards us.

"Once the chuchi show up, Shima and I will be the ones guarding Moriyama-san from their attacks.

"Finally, the person with the most horsepower will be the one pushing the cart, thats Okumura. Yousuf may not be as strong as him, but she's faster, so she'll be pushing along with him," Konekomaru finished.

We all went to our places, and Rin and I lifted up the cart handle; we both agreed that Rin will concentrate on keeping the cart lifted up, and I'll control the speed and do most of the faster running, so we could both focus on our strengths.

"Lets go, lets go, lets go!" Rin yelled. We were running for quite awhile, until-

"Huh?" Rin said as we looked ahead. We both screeched to a halt.

"What the hell..." I murmured.

"Why'd we stop?" Konekomaru asked from behind.

"What are we gonna do about this?!" Rin asked. In front of us was a huge pit of worms, and there was a bridge connecting from here to the other side. Yeah, there _was_ one. The one in front of us was basically two pieces of rope, and like, five wooden planks. I may be over exaggerating, but you know what I mean.

"_Holy hell, look down, there's tons of them!_" Renzo said. He was right, there was a _ton_ of the weird, slimy worms, and I wasn't a fan of insects or bugs either.

"I think I'm going to piss myself," Renzo muttered, sick in the face.

"Maybe it would be better if you did," Rin said, shrugging. "You never know."

"Okumura," Konekomaru said. "You shouldn't say stuff like that. Once someone pees their pants; it's all over."

Ryuji seemed pretty pissed, though; he walked over (still chanting), grabbed Shima's K'rik (that's his monk staff), and started pounding the pit with it.

"Bon! What the _hell_ are you doing?!," Renzo asked, still freaked out.

"Hmm, that sandscript," Konekomaru said, looking up to the torn down entrance of the bridge. "Those are Seeds of Khan! Looks like something else is being sealed here."

Ryuji gathered us all around and pulled out a notebook, still chanting. 'I've got idea,' he wrote. 'We can make the peg lantern cross by itself.'

"All right, but how?" Rin asked.

"Oh, okay," Konekomaru said. "I think I can see where this is going."

"How can you 'see where this is going'?" I asked. "Like he hasn't even written anything else down!"

'I'll draw it,' Ryuji wrote. So basically, the plan was that Rin, Konekomaru, and I were supposed to bring the cart to the other side, through the bug swamp. Ryuji would unseal the lantern, while Renzo would carry Shiemi on his shoulders to the other side (also through the bug swamp, which he wasn't too happy about). The peg lantern is going to chase after it's favorite food, which is Shiemi. Ryuji wrote that Shiemi was-err, more 'feminine' than me, so thats why the peg lantern would choose her. Hey, I wasn't complaining; I don't want a man-eating lantern to chase me across a bug swamp. And it wouldn't matter, because I would be on the other side already, anyway. So, after peg lantern would chase Shiemi, it would fall right into our trap, and Konekomaru would seal it from moving around again.

"Suguro!" Rin said, in awe. "Man, you're drawings are epic!"

Renzo laughed shakily. "You guys want me to go wading through that bug swamp...while my head's being squeezed between Moriyama-san's thighs? I'll die before I make it," he assured us, giving us a thumbs up for good measure.

"Shima-san, this isn't the time to please your worldly desires!"

"You're so mean, Koneko-san!"

"Fine, whatever, I'll carry her over," Rin muttered.

"Okay, then," I shrugged. "So me and Konekomaru will bring the cart to the other side, then Rin will bring Shiemi over, right?"

Konekomaru nodded. I wasn't to fond of walking through the gross, slimy, worms, while carrying the cart, but what had to be done, had to be done. I grunted, as I picked the cart up over my head, and closed an eye when I stepped into the swamp. The only good thing was that the cart was much lighter without the lantern on it, but I shuddered as I lugged through the swamp. It was much shallower than I thought, and I got over it pretty quickly. I set the cart on the ground in front of me, and shook off a couple worms which were still hanging from my legs.

"Damn worms..." I unsheathed my sword, and stabbed them harder than I should've. I then waved over to Rin so that he could come over.

"H-hold on tight," Rin said, with Shiemi on his shoulders.

"O-okay," Shiemi said. As Rin stood up, Shiemi yelped, grabbing onto Rin's face. I laughed at him, pointing.

"Oh, shut up!" he yelled at me, red in the face. "Hey, easy on the hair!" he told Shiemi.

"Oh, sorry..." she muttered.

Konekomaru and Rin gave Ryuji the signal to unseal the peg lantern. As soon as it saw Shiemi, it started to chase after them.

"Here it comes!" Rin yelled, and started to run.

"Over here!" Shiemi called to it.

"You don't have to tease it!" Rin said, irritated.

When the peg lantern leapt (don't ask; I have no idea how a lantern can jump, either), Rin threw Shiemi off of his shoulders, into the bushes. I jumped out of the way when the lantern landed into the cart, and Konekomaru sealed it back, and started to chant the scripture. I let out a breath of relief.

"Hey Rin, we did it!" Shiemi cheered.

Rin panted, leaning against the ledge of the pit, and laughed.

"Hey Okumura," Renzo said, holding out his hand. "Grab on, I'll pull you up."

"It's cool," Rin said climbing up himself. "I got it.

"Well," Rin said, resting his hand against the old bridge entrance. "Now that that's over with-" Before he could complete his sentence, he pushed a little _too_ hard on the entrance, causing the entire bridge to collapse into the pit of worm. We shielded ourselves from the gust of dust and grime, which had came up from the pit.

"Good going," I coughed. The sand scripture that had been taped on the entrance had flew off, and Ryuji gasped.

"Rin," Shiemi yelled. "Behind you!"

"Huh-?" Suddenly, a moth as big as your house, had erupted from the pit, grabbing Rin with it's tentacle-like-arm-thingies (no, it's not what you think, you little pervert). Rin screamed, which was weird, because I've never heard him do that before. But really, who wouldn't, when they're grabbed by a humongous moth-demon?

"Okumura!" Ryuji yelled, as he struggles to get out of the moth's grasp.

"Rin!" Shiemi also yelled. (What? What else do you expect me to say? 'And after Ryuji yelled, Shiemi after a split-second yelled out his name in perfect harmony, which magically stopped the moth from killing Rin-'? No, I don't think so.)

"Don't worry about me!" Rin shouted down to us. "I'll catch up to you after I kick it's ass! Everything's cool, just go!"

"That son of a-" Ryuji muttered. "You're always doing that, you dumbass!" he yelled.

"Hehe...my bad," Rin said.

"Well, I'm going to help you, like it or not!"

"Huh?" Rin looked pretty surprised.

"Shima, give your k'rik!" Ryuji said.

"Okay, just be careful with it!" Shima tossed it to him.

"Everyone else, just get ready to run!" Ryuji grabbed a talisman from the floor, which had been sealing the beast before, and threw it upward, spun the k'rik, landing it square through the seal, onto the moth's head.

"Woah...ever thought of playing baseball?" I asked, as I ran to get the cart, but Ryuji was too busy chanting the scripture to seal the moth. A fire-laser sort of thing flared up from the moth's head, causing it to drop Rin. Ryuji called back the k'rik, and Rin landed into the pit of worms.

He came up, and said, "Woah, dude! Awesome!"

"C'mon, hurry up!" Ryuji said, pulling him up from the pit. "Thats all I can do, so get moving!"

"What happened?!" Rin shouted, as we pushed the cart with the peg lantern. "I thought you killed it!"

* * *

We cleared into an opening, finally stopping, and stood there for a minute, trying to catch our breath.

"I think it stopped chasing us," Konekomaru panted.

"Thank god..." Renzo said.

"Hey, Suguro," Rin said, standing up straight. "Thanks a lot, man."

"I was just returning the favor, that's all," Ryuji said.

"For what?" Rin said, puzzled.

"You saved my life once...and you want the same thing I do-to defeat Satan. And because you had the guts to admit it in front of everyone..."

"Yeah, well," Rin grinned. "A moron like me doesn't really think too hard before saying stuff like that."

"I don't think you're a moron..." Ryuji said. Rin looked up, startled. "But, still, you're being stupid if you can think that you can take everything on by yourself! You've got friends, don't forget that!"

"Good job, Bon, couldn't have said it better myself," Renzo said.

"If you're going to take Satan on, you're definitely going to need some help," Konekomaru said.

"I'm a wimp, but I got your back," Renzo admitted. "But, of course, if there's going to be bugs involved, I won't do you much good."

"You guys..." Rin said.

"Rin," Shiemi said, smiling. "We're here for you!"

Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking, because _I have no idea what's going on right now. _All this stuff about beating Satan? My ass! But if this is what being a friend is all about, I guess I just have to go with it.

I cleared my throat. "Yeah...I have no idea what the hell you guy's are talking about, but yeah, I'll help to do whatever." Great words of advice, Adira, just _great_.

But that still hit Rin in the feels. "Right," he said, his voice almost cracking.

"I hate to say it, Shima, but you were totally useless this time," Ryuji said, crossing his arms.

"Hey!" Renzo pouted. "C'mon, easy, Bon! I'm doing the best I can, _considering_!"

We all laughed.

"Bugs aren't _that_ bad," Shiemi said.

We continued on with our peg lantern to the campsite.

* * *

"Oh, thank _god_," Shima said, spreading his arms out. "We finally made it back alive!"

"Congrats, guys," Shura said (not drunk). "Ya'll made it back in one piece."

"What the hell!" Ryuji exclaimed. "How'd you guys finish the mission on your own?!" He was right; Izumo and Takara were already chilling next to the fire, not a scratch on them.

"I just made my familiars' drag the lantern back," Izumo said. "Takara got here first, though."

"It took 'em _this_ long to get back with all that help?" Takara's puppet spoke. "Wow, what a bunch of losers!"

"Now look here, you little-" I started, swinging my fists in front of me.

"Adira-" Shiemi pulled me back from doing anything drastic to the brat.

"What _is_ Tamaki, anyway?" Konekomaru said.

Shiemi suddenly let go of my arm, and flinched, putting her hand behind her neck. "Oww..."

"Hey!" I yelled, since her letting go of my arm, caused me to fall forward.

"What's wrong?" Rin asked Shiemi, as she rubbed the back of her neck.

"Hang on..." Shura said, looking around. "Is this it, everyone's back? So none of you gave up?"

"Does it look like we gave up?" I asked, standing up, rubbing my knee.

"But then, who set off that bottle rocket?" she wondered. Ohh, thats right. Around the time we started to pull the lantern on the cart, we saw a bottle rocket go off, indicating that someone gave up.

"Ouch.." Shiemi murmured.

"Shiemi?" Rin asked, worried.

"Hey, are you-?" I was _going_ to ask if she was okay, but then I was rudely interrupted from-err, I don't even know, to be honest with you. We heard someone yell from above, and when we looked up some_one _fell from the sky; he had green hair, which pointed upward, had droopy eyes, and was dressed like a-a-_clown_? This annoyed me greatly, because who else dresses like a clown? Yeah, you're right, Mephisto. And, by the way, he also had a demon-thing that he held from a chain, like his own little pet dog.

"Don't just stand there!" Shura yelled to us, pulling out her sword from her chest.

"Go, Behemoth!" Green-Haired yelled, unleashing his pet demon.

"Took him long enough..." Shura muttered, and let out a whistle. It somehow triggered the fire that we were standing by to form into a snake, but then it also spread out a barrier of fire, which repelled the demon, and Green-Haired, and sent them flying.

"An absolute barrier?" Ryuji questioned.

"Yep," Shura said. "Everything inside the magic circle is safe, and everything outside is repelled." She stuck her sword in the ground. "You guys should be safe here for a little while."

"That's all great, but what's the deal with that guy?!" Izumo asked. Fair question, really, I was thinking the same thing.

"Yeah, Miss Shura! Is he supposed to be part of our training?" Konekomaru asked. I didn't think so.

"And don't you think he's a little too tough for us the handle?" Renzo asked. Um, yeah.

"Training's over for today," Shura said, tying her hair back into a bun. "He have to get ready for Amaimon's next attack."

"Amaimon?" Oh, okay, so that's what Green-Haired's name is.

"Do you mean one of the Eight Kings of Hell? The Earth King? _That _Amaimon?" Izumo asked. I felt like she was going to faint.

"Uh-huh," Shura said, lifting a canteen of water. "And since he's one of the big guns, you exwires don't stand much of chance on your own against him. Everyone gather around; I'm going to give you all a dose a triple-C concentrated holy water."

"But why," Izumo said as she got splashed, "does he want to fight us...?"

"Yeah, this has got to be some kind of," Renzo got splashed too, "some kind of joke."

Shura turned towards Rin, ready to splash some on him, but then stopped herself.

"Whoops," she said, turning to Konekomaru. "That was close, it would've been ugly if I poured some on you...and Adira for that instance..."

"Huh, wait-," I started to ask, but Rin poked me, and shook his head. But why not me? I looked at, confused. Shura poured water on everyone else, but me and Rin; why didn't she pour it on us?

Shura made the hand gesture to ward of evil, and said, "In the beginning, God made the Heavens and the Earth.

"Alright, you guys are good until the holy water dries. No matter what happens, the damage shouldn't be too bad," Shura said, with her hands on her hips.

"What about Okumura and Yousuf, aren't you going to splash them with some?" Ryuji asked. Yes, I'd like to know that too.

"Yeaaahh," Shura said her 'yeah' nice, and long. "They're sort of allergic to holy water, so..." she put her hands behind her head.

"Allergic to holy water?! I've never heard _that_ one before!" Ryuji said, irritably. Yeah, me neither. How did I not know about this, but Shura did? I barely talk to her, except in class when she's teaching me how to use my sword.

"Wait," Rin said, suddenly. "Where's Yukio?"

"He was sort of getting in the way, so I sent him off somewhere," Shura said, grinning.

Izumo and Konekomaru flipped open their phones, and starting punching in numbers.

"What the hell! I can't get through to any of our emergency contacts!" Izumo said.

"And I can't reach any of our teachers either!" Konekomaru said.

"Amaimon's supposed to be a big shot, so what's he picking on us for?!" Ryuji asked, Shura. Another fair question.

"Dunno," Shura said, leaning against the cooler. "I'm wondering the same thing."

Ha, remember when I said that there's no reason to be worried, and all that sappy crap? Well, I couldn't be more wrong, we were just about to get obliviated by one the Eight King-mabobbers, and I was totally clueless. It was like someone just dropped me into a battlefield in another country; no idea what was going on, no idea what to do. I turned my head, and it was a good thing I did, too, towards the outside of the magic circle, and it was all in slow motion, like in those awesome action movies. Shiemi was walking like a zombie, just like how I walk to the bathroom right after I wake up, and she was walking straight out of the magic circle.

"Um, Moiyama-san," Renzo asked. "Where are you going?"

"Hey, what the hell are you doing?!" I yelled after her. She didn't even look back.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Shura said. "Hey, somebody stop her!"

I ran, and lunged forward, but I was a freaking _centimeter_ away-no a _millimeter_, away from grabbing her hand, until guess who interrupted me for the second time? Yeah, it was clown number two, Amaimon, the so called 'King of Middle Earth'. Shiemi walked right into him, and he caressed her hair.

"Shiemi!" Rin yelled. Shura whipped her blade in front of him, stopping him from going any further.

"What did you do to that girl?!" Shura yelled at Amaimon.

"Oh, I just had a female chuchi lay an egg inside her," the demon said, casually, like he had all the time in the world. "It took forever and a half for it to hatch, but now that it's nibbling on her nervous system, this young lady will do whatever I tell her to." I legit thought this guy was a five year old in a middle-aged dude's body, because there is no way a guy with this kind of attitude is a king.

"Oh, look who we have here," he said, his eyes wandering over to me, as if he just noticed I was _standing right in front of him_. He was about a foot away from me, he could probably kill me in an instant-this guy isn't one of those bullies I would fight during lunch time. This guy is the real deal. I stared at the demon, eyes wide. Now that I got a closer look at him...this guy really _does_ look like Mephisto! I doubled over and laughed at him, even though there was nothing to laugh at. Honestly, I didn't know why I was laughing, myself. I was, literally, in the face of danger. But the demon didn't find anything amusing.

"What's so funny?" he asked, solemnly, in the same kiddy voice.

"Nothing," I said, still grinning. "It's just that you look like someone I know-" Too late; he swung a fist at me, and I ducked, barely dodging it. Oh, okay, then. I knew his type-he was the type of person who got pissed easily, and will charge you head on. But he also liked to anger others, too, and was pretty damn good at it.

"You're fast," he said, licking his lips. I narrowed my eyes at him. For some reason, now that I look at him, I felt as though I need to pulverize every part of him. It was amazing how this guy can make me change my emotions this fast.

"Ooh, you shouldn't be flaring up right now!" he whispered to me. "I could see your eyes turn red, but if you do, you'll lose consciousness, and go berserk, you know that don't you?"

"Huh?" I continued to glare at him. "Look, I don't know what the hell you're talking about, but let Shiemi go!"

"Catch me if you can~!" He held onto Shiemi and jumped out of sight, into the woods.

"Get back here, bastard!" I yelled, and ran into the woods after him.

"Come back, idiot!" Shura called to me, and right in time, too. Amaimon's pet was still on the loose, and there it was right in front of me. I unsheathed my sword, wielding it in front of me.

"You wanna go?" I asked it. It lunged towards me, and at the same time I swung my sword through it. It didn't do as much damage as I liked. As I started to swing again, Shura grabbed me from the collar of my shirt and threw me back into the magic circle. I landed on my ass (gee, thanks, Shura) and watched as she sliced her sword through the demon. She tossed Rin a piece of cloth which strapped something in the inside together; I guessed that that was his sword.

"Go after Amaimon," she told him. "I'm right behind you." Rin nodded, and ran off, after him.

"Hey, wait-" I started to say.

Shura glared at me, with a glint in her eye. "_Stay there_. Nobody leaves the magic circle for any reason!" She yelled at us exwires, and looked back at me. "Especially you, Adira. If Rin flares up, we have to keep you away as far as possible." The last part was a murmur, but I swear that's what she said. She fought with the demon, until it dragged her into the forest. Suddenly, we heard a crash, and looked up.

"Is that...Rin?" I asked squinting. I gasped, as we saw him fly across the air, and crash into the thickness of the forest.

"That goddamned, son of a-" Ryuji was seriously pissed. I don't know why Rin almost dying got him angry, but he stormed out of the magic circle.

"No, Bon, stop!" Konekomaru said.

"What are you doing?" Izumo exclaimed. "You aren't supposed to leave the circle!"

"Bon," Renzo said, grabbing his shoulder. "Try to calm down, okay?"

"Calm down, my ass," Ryuji said. "Feed that shit to the dogs, right now I'm so pissed of at that punk, I could freaking explode!" He yanked himself out of Renzo's grip, and stomped out.

"Ugh, this can't be happening!" Renzo said, but followed Ryuji out.

"Wait, Shima!" Konekomaru bit his lips, but then made up his mind, and walked out of the circle following the both of them.

"Huh?!" Izumo gasped. "Are you _kidding?_ Come back, you're going to get killed!"

I looked at my choices right now: stay in the magic circle (don't die), or follow them out, and possibly save Rin (I'll probably die). I thought about what Shura said, '_Nobody leaves the magic circle for any reason! Especially you, Adira. If Rin flares up, we have to keep you away as far as possible.' _What did she mean by that? I've read somewhere that following your gut feeling is usually better, so YOLO, right? I started to run out of the magic circle ("What?!" Izumo said. "Not you, too! Unbelievable..."), Rin was in danger, and I was going to help.

I caught up with Ryuji, Renzo, and Konekomaru; we nodded to each other, and we didn't need to talk, we knew that we were going help Rin no matter what. We headed off to the place where we saw Rin crash land, and we finally arrived outside of the forest, into a rocky cliff area.

"Huh? What is he doing?" We spotted Amaimon, with Shiemi on his shoulder, and he was making a move to...take her eyeball...?

"What the hell," Ryuji muttered. He grabbed a bottle rocket, and aimed it at Amaimon's hand. It whizzed past him, but it still caused him to stop what he was doing, and glance over at us.

"Forgot to invite us to the party!" Ryuji shouted. "So we're crashing it!" I stuck my tongue out at Amaimon.

"No!" Rin said. He was on the rocky ground, struggling to get up, blood seeping out of his mouth. "Get away!"

"Run for it, Okumura!" Konekomaru yelled. "We'll keep him busy!"

"I-I-I'm just here to save Moriyama-san, so-so yeah!" Renzo said, not so heroically.

"We're here to help, so get the hell out of here!" I yelled, unsheathing my sword.

"Just do what I said! _Run!_" Rin was serious.

Konekomaru yelped, and accidentally lit his own bottle rocket, sending it flying towards Shiemi. "Wah, uh-oh!"

"What. The. Hell! You hit Moriyama-san!" Renzo said to him, gritting his teeth.

"Huh...?" Lucky for Konekomaru, Amaimon's hair was in the way of Shiemi's head, so it exploded making his pointy hair super poofy, like a broccoli. We gaped at him, as the demon groped his hair, surprised.

Renzo couldn't take it; he tried to stifle his laughter by covering his mouth, "Broccoli!"

Amaimon glared back at him, and before I could even blink, he was in front of Renzo, and kicked him square in the stomach, right into a tree.

"Shima!" Ryuji yelled, as Renzo fell back down. Amaimon turned to Ryuji, and he tensed. Konekomaru stood in front of him, with his arms spread to protect him. Amaimon simply pressed on one of the nerves on his arm, causing Konekomaru to fall in agony.

"Konekomaru-" Ryuji yelled, but Amaimon grabbed his neck, and lifted him up from he ground.

"You laughed at me, didn't you?" he asked him. Wow, this guy really does act like a kid.

"I don't give a damn about you, weirdo. The guy I'm super pissed at is him!" Ryuji jerked his head towards Rin. "You act like you don't care, but then you help someone...I thought you were a loser, but then you kick all kinds of ass. Who the hell are you?! Why do you go around acting like a-" Amaimon choked Ryuji even harder, eyes narrowing.

"What are you talking about? I have no idea what you're saying, don't ignore me!" What a whiny little brat. I stabbed my sword into his stomach, which caused him to drop Ryuji, who fell to the ground, gasping for air. I pulled my sword out, blood dripping from the tip, amazed that I actually got him. Amaimon looked at me, bored. The cut that I gave, totally unfazed him.

"Oh, you're still here," he said, lazily. "You're very annoying."

Again, faster than I could see, he seized my sword, flipped it, and stabbed me in my left shoulder, slicing through my uniform. I screamed, the pain was worse than anything I've ever imagined. I thought dislocating my shoulder was bad. I grabbed my shoulder, feeling the blood ooze outside. I looked at my hand, covered in blood, it felt so..._weird_ looking at this much of my blood on my hands. It made me dizzy, and I staggered back into a tree.

"_Stop_!" Rin yelled at Amaimon. I squinted up, panting. He let the cloth over his sword go loose, and fall to the ground.

"Rin!" I heard Yukio call. He emerged from the woods, armed with his guns. "Don't fall for it, it's a trap!"

"Yukio...I'm sorry," Rin said. "I guess I don't got it in me to keep lying to everyone."

I was going to pass out any minute now. I saw Rin lift up his sword, gripping it tightly.

"So I've decided...I'm going to use my power to do something good, for everyone!" he said. He unsheathed his sword, and it was really hard to explain for what happened after that. My eyes grew wide, as he erupted in blue flames, and the burning feeling came back, eating away at my stomach. I started to cough uncontrollably, and I coughed up some more blood. I looked down at my hands, and there were blue flames around me, too. I couldn't scream this time, I didn't have enough energy to. The blue flames didn't hurt though, it was that sensation that was eating me up from the inside. I felt my ears grow long, and my back teeth sharpen. My vision grew fuzzy, as I felt something grow along behind me. It was too late to panic...I was turning into a monster. The last thing I saw before I passed out, was Rin and Amaimon in an air battle, slicing at each other, like demons in the sky.

* * *

**Sorry for the late update, that took **_**much **_**longer than I'd liked, but it's finally here, yay! I got a lot of time to work on it though, because of winter break, so that's good ^.^ This chapter is extremely long, I wanted to make it up to you, because the last chapter was pretty short. It went into episode fifteen, too. Please review if something doesn't make sense, you have questions, advice, if I have any spelling/grammatical errors, and also if you think I should keep writing from Adira's P.O.V. Thanks for reading, and I hoped you guys like it!**

**Natsumo: Haha, yeah that one was pretty short. Sorry I couldn't update it quickly, though, I don't have a schedule or anything. But thanks for the cookies! ^.^ They are much appreciated.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Hey! Been awhile, huh? Sorry about that, I know, I'm a horrible person. Please dont expect quick updates from me, I really dont want to disappoint you (even though, as I said before, you probably have better things to do haha XD)...yeah, I procrastinate a lot. But now, its the moment you've all been waiting for-drum roll, please? In this chapter, I will be answering most of your (and Adira's), questions! Yaaay. I can taste your excitement from all the way here, geez. XD Lol, jk. But in all seriousness, thanks **_**so**_ **much for the support. You guys probably don't even care, because you might read a lot of fanfic, and this is only one of the many, but it really means a lot to me. XD Even though there are only a few of you following, it's kinda amazing to know that people (even if its a small amount) want you to keep doing what you're doing. I know what you're thinking: 'Bro, calm down, it's not like you're writing a book or anything, and you're writing kinda sucks, anyway.' Aha, you might be right, but it's still really cool, ya know? I would also like to thank my friend, PandaDerrper, for editing my last chapter, and for the support. She is also writing a Blue Exorcist fanfic, and I think it's really great, so you should also check it out ;) Anyway, thanks so much to the few people who are reading, and here is the next chapter!**

***Disclaimer: I do not own the Blue Exorcist.**

* * *

"Huh…?" My eyes snapped open, as I lay on the floor, and I found myself staring at...nothing. Absolutely nothing. Just a blank, white ceiling. I propped up on my elbows, and looked around. Blank, white walls...just an empty room. No door. No windows. _Nothing_. I got up, and walked around. I knocked on one of the walls, pressing my ear to it. It sounded...hollow. I then started to panic. _What was I doing here? What was this place? _I started to pace around quicker. If I wasn't wearing a headscarf, I would be pulling at my hair. I started to sweat. _I started to remember_...we were at the campsite a few moments ago. We had an exwire test...we all passed...then...then, what happened? I racked my brain. _Amaimon._

"Amaimon…" I said out loud, as if that would help me remember. I suddenly gasped. _Of course._ Amaimon, one of the Eight Kings of Hell. He interrupted our exam...he...what did he want to do? What was his purpose? _Rin. He was fighting Rin._ I held my breath. And then...it happened. Yeah. Now I remember. He drew his sword, and enveloped in blue flames, he grew a tail, his ears grew longer, and his canines grew sharper. And not just for him. _For me too_. Right as I recalled this, my stomach started to eat away at me. I exhaled. I lifted up my hand, and saw the flames. I flicked my tail, I ran my tongue over my canines. I felt the tip of my ears. _All this time...was I really a monster? An animal? _Did this surprise me? I'm not going to lie, or pretend that I'm, like, someone who's super strong, and can handle anything, because it did surprise me. In fact, it scared the shit out of me. It wasn't like, 'Oh, yeah, I always knew I was different', or something stupid like that. I was no hero. _Why me?_

"I'm a-" I started to whisper.

"A demon!" A voice cackled. I whipped around. In front of me, there was a wolf. It was also dowsed in blue flames. It seemed to be smirking at me. _Was it the one who talked?_ I stared at it with blank eyes. The wolf didn't seem to get the reaction it was hoping for, from me. It stared back. I suddenly realized something.

"My shoulder!" I clapped my hand over it, the sword was obviously not there, and it wasn't hurting. In fact, I didn't have a scratch on me.

"Is this a dream?" I wondered out loud. _And was stabbing my in the shoulder really necessary in the first place, Amaimon? God! _

"No," I looked down. The wolf _did_ talk. "You think I'm _that_ cliche? I'm Satan!"

I wasn't sure what my reaction was supposed to be, but I did not imagine Satan to be a wolf. I cocked my head at it. The wolf, or so called 'Satan', started to creep towards me. It lunged forward, toppling me forward. It opened its jaws in front of my face, ready to snap, but the smell got to me.

"Ah, gross!" I yelled, pushing the wolf away. "Have you ever thought of using mouth wash? Ugh, seriously." The wolf seemed a little bit offended.

"Calm down, I wasn't going to kill you anyway," it grumbled. I stared at it again. The fact that it talked didn't _really _surprise me (I mean, I do live with a talking cat), but the fact that it could speak English did. You most likely hadn't noticed, but whenever I talked to someone here (in Japan, I mean), I always spoke in Japanese. I dont know if you remember, but in the beginning I said that I took Japanese as my required language in school. Pretty good coincidence, huh? To Rin, Yukio, Shiemi, everyone. But when I'm by myself I'm always speaking English; when I'm talking to myself (cause I'm such a loser), when I hit my toe against something, I'll swear in English, and of course, I think in English. It might slip out though when I'm walking down the street and I bump into a stranger and say 'sorry!' in English or something. I guess I'm saying this, since it's not very clear on my situation. But it is my first language, I was born in LA, to be more specific. Have I ever told you how different it is over there, than in Japan? Damn, well I'm telling ya, this place is different, alright! Its always bustling in Japan, people are always nodding hellos and smiling to each other. Great place. Los Angeles however, its pretty ghetto, people always have their heads down on the streets, avoiding eye contact. Don't get me wrong, I love my home; I'm used to it there, and more suited. Speaking of differences, have I _ever_ said how big True Cross Academy is?! Its hella big, it has _escalators_! Who doesn't want escalators at their school? Mephisto is probably like _really_ rich; but he's a total miser, barely gives us any money to survive the month (we get payment every month for our survival). Hmm. Where was I? Oh, yeah! I was telling you about my conversation with Satan; shall we move on? Good.

If Satan could face palm, I'm sure he would right now, because after I asked him about the English thing, he sighed heavily, and groaned seriously irritated.

"Have I seriously chose someone this _stupid_? What was wrong with me back then?" I heard him growl. "Just shut up, and listen."

I'm not a _cold_ person per say, but I can get pretty serious when I needed to, even though I'm probably incredibly stupid, and make super lame jokes. This also angered me, because this really wasn't the time to be joking around; I literally had my shoulder stabbed by my own sword just a moment ago, and I'm conversing with the highest ranking demon. His tone was bothersome...and now I had to admit I was scared. This was Satan, he could easily kill me, just like that. I should've realized this sooner. So, I indeed, decided to shut up and listen.

Satan grinned, his canine teeth showing.

"Adira. Do you know what blue flames represent?"

I shook my head.

"Me. Blue flames represent the sign of Satan."

At first I was confused. So? Blue flames, Satan, so what? But then I started to put the pieces together. _Blue flames, the sign of Satan. Rin erupted in flames. So did I. But what does that mean?_

"Guess," the demon said, reading my mind.

"Are we...like...part-Satan?" I asked.

"Rin is my son."

I choked, and doubled over. I coughed out...nothing, actually. If felt like I spat out a glob of...something, at least. But just as I spat, I felt a lot better. The burning feeling disappeared. I would've been happy, but considering the circumstances, it wasn't the time to celebrate.

"Well, that's gotten over with," Satan said.

"What?" I croaked.

"You see, the reason I am here, is because of Rin. When Rin releases his flames around you for the first time, your power will finally awaken. When that happens, I triggered both of us to arrive here...to make a deal," the wolf swiped his tongue over his mouth.

"Okay...but what am I? I'm not your daughter or anything, am I? How can Satan have a kid, anyway?" I stressed.

"Yuri was the only person I ever loved…" he said softly. "We decided to make a world where demons and humans can live in peace together! We nurtured Rin and Yukio...unfortunately Yuri died after giving birth to them...I tried everything to save her."

_So Yuri is Rin and Yukio's mom…_

"But what about me?!" I exclaimed.

"Do...do you want to know how your parents and your brother died?"

I stared at him, my mouth agape. I tried to talk, but my mouth wouldn't move. _This was it. This was the only reason I was here. My sole purpose. _I was in shock. Will he tell me? What really happened? _Right now?_

The wolf grinned, insanely. "_You _killed them, Adira."

I still stared. Then it hit me, like an invisible force pushing me back. It was overwhelming. The tears started to fall down my face, without me realizing. _Yes, I did. _

"You remember now, don't you?" he snickered. "Ah, well I do: It was when possessed you for the seventh time. At midnight. The night your parents and younger brother were killed. The blade struck them all at the heart. Clean cuts. The knife that was used was transported back to Gehenna, containing the souls of your family. You went back to sleep like nothing happened. Every time I possessed you, you always forgot what happened. The first time I did, I had 'inserted' my flames into you...it was a difficult process. I could've waited to possess you enough times to do the job instead, but I didn't have time to lose. You've gotten physically stronger, and you have the speed of a high-ranking demon. The burning feeling that you get is when you, Rin, or Yukio feel that you guys are at extreme pressures, because you guys share the same demon blood. You're the only one who can feel it, because it originally served its purpose to bring you here, as I said before. However, once you get used to it, you can also slightly get an idea what what Rin and Yukio are feeling in normal situations...

"But, why were you hated so much? You were a suspect of the killing already. Rumor spread like wildfire. You didn't know, of course. Well, innately, you were a suspect. You had supernatural powers, was called a monster, and six times before the mass murder, you had been acting strangely...why you ask?" Satan started to stride around the room gleefully. "As I said before...I'm going to make you a deal. It's simple.

"Rin's powers were awoken before he started to go to True Cross. It was when I possessed Shiro, his so-called godfather. The reason was because he is the only hope I have to create my perfect world, and destroy Assiah. I waited _so_ long for Rin's powers to be awakened. Sadly, Yukio was too weak to sustain the power as a baby. So...its easy: all I want you to do is bring Rin to me...in exchange...you get your whole family back."

"But they're dead," I whispered.

"No. The blade that they were killed by holds all their souls. They haven't passed on, yet. They're stuck in the middle. So all you have to do is bring Rin to me, and I'll give you your parents and brother back," he repeated.

For a fleeting moment, I wanted to say yes, immediately. _I wanted this. My family, and the people I loved, I wanted them back. Do you know...how hard it is when everyone you loved disappears right in front of your eyes...and then you're the one who did it without even knowing? Seeing their mangled, lifeless bodies? Getting counseling for months after the incident? Do you know? It's bizarre. Unreal. Who does that? When does this ever happen to you? Why me?_

I couldn't bring myself to do it. Rin, Yukio, and the people who accepted me, the people who I met when I had the chance to start over, and make friends...I couldn't do it. It would put, not just them, but the entire world in danger. This was a deal with Satan. My family...or my friends?

"You can really do it? Bring my family back?"

"I can."

I paused for a second.

The wolf stopped trotting, and looked up at me. "I'll give you some time. You come here when you're ready."

"How will I come back, though?"

"...You'll know when you need to…" Satan said. "My time is almost up with you, right now. Time goes much quicker in this box.

"Right now back on Earth, you and Rin have been captured by the new Paladin. Rin went berserk, and you two are unconscious, and in court."

"Court? For what?"

"Rin let out his flames...everyone know that you two are demons. They're deciding to let you live...or execute you."

"Who's backing us up?"

"The so called, 'old-clown', as you call him."

I groaned. _We're screwed._

"Hmm," The wolf closed his eyes, as if peering into Assiah. "Right now, they're fussing over Rin...oh! Finally, the good part; they know that Rin is my _son_, but they don't have a clue what you're about, and where you come from...and what your purpose is...perfect…" He opened his eyes back up. "Well, its time for you to go…" Satan muttered some old-style Japanese which I've never heard of before. In an instant, my knees buckled, and I collapsed, the last thing I saw was the grinning face of Satan.

* * *

_Huh? Where am I? _My eyes flickered open, and I tried to move. To my horror, I couldn't. My eyes widened, as I realized where I was. _He wasn't lying…_ My eyes darted around, as I perceived the setting of a courtroom. I was in a weird blue aura...and later found out that I was placed in a blue crystal. Rin was also beside me, still unconscious. Mephisto was in front of me, but I couldn't turn to see what was going on behind be. There were also three judges in front of me, wearing a bunch of...clothes over themselves (hey, I'm not against it or anything), in which you can only see their mouths. I could hear their muffled yelps as I regained consciousness..._were they...were they screaming at _me_? _They looked terrified by me, and I felt deja vu. People scared of you, and afraid...locked up, unable to move, and express your emotions. I was being humiliated in front of people, yet again. But I didn't have time to think about that. My pupils contracted, as I heard loud thuds coming from behind me. Everyone was yelling, I couldn't figure out what was happening around me. The room started to shake, and the thumping got louder. I heard crashing behind me, and then a cackled laugh.

"There you are!" the voice exclaimed. I recognized Amaimon's voice, calling out to Rin. I suddenly gasped. The floor cracked beneath us, and the crystals holding me and Rin in, shattered to the floor. I was able to hear things better, thank god, and finally got the gist of what was going around. A huge-ass sculptor-like thing was coming towards us. It was Amaimon in his full-demon form, I suppose. The room was in ruins, pillar fallen everywhere, and people were panicking. Shura, and this guy with extremely long, blond hair and a huge sword (whom I later learned was the new Paladin that Satan was telling me about), were on the ground, most likely defeated by Amaimon.

"So, cast in your votes!" Mephisto yelled, waving a hand. "Decide whether you're for or against!"

"You…" the new Paladin muttered, clutching his shoulder. "You heeded the summons, because you _knew_ the son of Satan would bring a horde of demons?!"

"Hm? What are you talking about?" Mephisto said smugly. "Shouldn't you be assuring the Grigoris safety, instead of making rude accusations, Angel?" The Paladin glared at the clown.

"I'm here to settle things with you, Rin Okumura!" _Huh?_ I was so caught up with Angel's and Mephisto's conversation that I hadn't realized that Amaimon had picked up the unconscious Rin, ready to crush him to a pulp. However, one of the guards in the courtroom had his sniper ready, and started to shoot the demon, which caused him to drop Rin. _Rin! _I managed to scramble up, and immediately collapsed next to him, wincing at the pain my shoulder had given me. I shook him with my good arm.

"Get up!" I muttered.

"You're pissing me off!" Amaimon yelled, and swung his hand across where the sniper was standing, crushing everything that he touched. "Don't worry, you'll all get your turn when I start slaughtering you, one by one!"

"Sir Pheles, I don't care how, just get rid of that demon!" the female Grigori pleaded. Mephisto turned with a questionable look in his eye.

"As you wish!" he said, bowing. He snapped his fingers, and Ryuji appeared in the opening, as if on cue, holding Rin's sword.

"Okumura!" he yelled. "How long are you gonna sleep there! Wake up, already!"

"I can hear it...Rin Okumura's heartbeat." Amaimon said. He reached out to Ryuji, aiming for the sword. "Give that to me!"

Ryuji jumped on top if the demon, and slid down. "Shima!" he yelled, and tossed it to him (I don't know how, but all of the exwires started to appear at this very moment).

"What, no way!" Shima reached out and grabbed it. "Pass!" he said, tossing it to Izumo.

"Huh? Why me?!" She leaped away from the demons crushing hand.

"Kamiki-san! Here!" Yukio yelled, waving an arm.

"Yes, sir!" Izumo threw it towards him, he caught it, and started to run toward us. I struggled standing up.

"Here-!" I started to say, but he got knocked over by Amaimon, hitting the stairs, nearby.

"Yukio!" Shura shouted. Yukio crawled towards Rin with difficulty, and placed the sword on top of him.

"Rin...wake up!" Rin suddenly got enveloped in the blue flames. I jumped a foot in the air. It just seems different, now knowing what the flames are all about. My powers didn't awaken this time, but my tail, my sharp-ass teeth, and my pointy ears were still there. I guess once your powers are awakened, you can't go back to your normal, humane self. I wonder how I can make my flames come out by will?

Rin was suddenly up and standing, shifting his head as if in a daze. He then seamlessly unsheathed it, chopping one of Amaimon's rock arms off. Rin leaped forward on top of the demon, and stuck the sword into Amaimon's real body. I felt determined, and perseverance, but these weren't my emotions, these were Rins. _This is probably what Satan meant, when he said that I could feel what Rin or Yukio are feeling…_

"Adira-" Yukio started to say.

"I know," I said. "I got a visit from your dad." He looked confused for a second.

"Which one?"

_What a question to ask out of all things… _"I think you know which one," I said. His eyes widened. But we had worse problems at the moment...

"No way...I'm the Earth King…" Amaimon said, eyes wide. "_I can't lose!_" Amaimon also got covered in blue flames, and then got incinerated into a pile of ashes. "_Brother!_" He called out to Mephisto, but it was too late. We watched as the pile of ashes fell the ground. _It's done._ Rin then sheathed his sword, and fell to his knees, right in front of me.

"Rin!" I managed to grab his shoulders at the last second. Right after that, the new Paladin, Angel, set his sword by Rin's neck. I gasped. _Where did he even _come _from?!_

"What the hell are you doing?" Ryuji yelled from above.

"I'm slaying the spawn of Satan," he said bluntly, and then looked at me. "You're next."

I opened my mouth, ready to whip up an awesome comeback, that probably wouldn't sound awesome anymore when I say it in the face of the new Paladin, because I'll probably stutter a lot, but then the female Grigori said, "Stop, Angel." I looked up surprised. _They _weren't _going to kill us?_

"We will take Sir Pheles's gamble," the Grigori with the long beard, said.

"Will they become the savior of Assiah," the last one said. "...or demons that will bring destruction to everything, we have no choice, but to see for ourselves."

Angel removed his sword from Rin's neck, with a grim look on his face.

* * *

I shifted my backpack on my shoulder, ready to leave. I walked down the stairs, and reached Rin and Yukio's room. I knocked.

"You ready?" I asked from the door. I heard a sudden shuffle.

"Yeah," Rin opened the door, and walked past me, avoiding my eyes. "Let's go."

We arrived onto campus. It was dead quiet. Well, it _was_ the last day of Summer break. We didn't say anything to each other. After the incident at the campsite we were kind of distant. When he first found out that I was also a demon, he grinned, that endearing smile of his, and said, 'Welcome to the club!'. I knew he was uneasy...but also relieved, that there was someone else who can feel the same. It was amazing how we bonded so easily, compared to the first day when we walked together to cram school. I kinda smiled. We walked together, but we were a foot away from each other. We didn't talk, kinda just looked at each other, and pretended not to notice. I then realized that Rin was especially awkward around girls while by himself, and teased him about it. His face went beet-red, and I could tell that he was trying not to pummel me with all his might. After that, things weren't as awkward; it was like walking with a friend...

However….I hadn't told anyone the conversation I had with Satan, yet. Only Yukio, at the Grigori's court. We'd talk about it later, he said. We should first get some sleep, and that we'd talk about it at school, since he was busy doing his teacher thing in the early morning. I had to get stitches for my shoulder, but it healed quickly. Another one of being part demon perks, I guess. 'The Deal' (can we call it that from now on?) was still nagging me in the back of my mind. I barely got any sleep last night, trying to figure something out...just thinking, thinking, thinking. I can't look at Rin the same without feeling guilty...not that I'm going to turn him in or anything. This was still kinda unbelievable-when I came here, I definitely wasn't expecting something this phenomenal to happen to me. It was hard to comprehend - _I'm part Satan...Rin and Yukio are the freaking children of Satan..._this literally goes against all my beliefs!

I was also an emotional wreck. I couldn't believe after all this time, the answer about my families deaths' was right in front of me...I mean, it _is _me. Ah, man...I dont even know what to think of it anymore. I knew that I killed them. Right when Satan told me that I did, all my memories came flooding back to me. I also remembered all the times he had possessed me. Speaking of, I was always at a bad situation when this happened, or I was just really angry at something. Does that trigger my flames? The first time being when I broke my arm, and the last time being when I, no, _he_ killed them. _He did it, not me! _I always tried to convince myself this, that _I wasn't the one who stabbed them!_ But I could never forgive myself, no matter what.

* * *

We got to the nearest door, Rin stuck his key into the keyhole, and turned. The long, colorful hallway appeared before us, and the both of us started to go in opposite directions. I had to remind Rin that we weren't going to our original classroom, but to clean the ones that demons had basically taken over. He scratched the back of his head, grinning sheepishly. I half-heartedly smiled back. How can he always stay so happy?

I said, "Umm," and he said, "Hey," at the same time. We looked at eachother.

I grinned. "Ladies first, right?"

"Huh?" It took him a moment that I wasn't talking about myself, but him. "What-hey!"

"Just messing with you," I sighed. "So whats up?"

"You seem sorta down." Did he tell me that before, once? I don't remember. But it's nice of him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said quickly. I knew he was also confused. He was probably wondering about how I was related to Satan, as well. He didn't ask, though. I really respect him for that. Well, he's going to learn soon enough, anyway…

"So...what were you going to say?" he asked.

"Aren't you worried?" I blurted.

"About what?"

"About how everyone is going to treat you, now that they know that you're demon related!"

"Nah, man," Rin said, putting his hands behind his head. "I mean, they're my friends, right?"

"Yeah…" He couldn't be more wrong.

We entered the designated classroom, and Rin swung the door open.

"Hey!" He said cheerily. "Whats up?"

"Hi," I said quietly.

Awkward silence.

"Ohayo!" Shiemi said, smiling warmly.

"...Ohayo…" Renzo said uneasily.

"So, we have to clean up the coal tar?" Rin said like he would any other day. "Man, they always make us to do the most tedious jobs…We don't get any mops?"

"Dunno, look if there are any over there," Renzo said, waving his towards the back of the room. I started to walk towards where he pointed, passing Konekomaru as I go.

"I'll go throw out the trash…" he muttered.

Rin perked up, "I'll help!"

"I-I can manage this," Koneko insisted quietly. I stopped, and turned, to look at him. He was terrified. He wouldn't even make eye contact with Rin.

"Huh?" Rin was confused. "Hey, wait!"

"He's scared of you, because you're the child of a demon, and that Adira is related to him somehow," leave it to Izumo to be blunt about things. "You guys are related to the demon who butchered many exorcists around the world in just one night...who knows when your true nature will make you lose control again?"

She was talking about the Blue Night, I'm sure. I've heard of it from Suguro. But I saw Rin tense. He was mad, I don't know why. What's the point of trying to gain someone's trust when you're someone-no, some_thing_-different? Rin turned around, and punched the wall in anger. We heard the pipes above us collapse, and a chunk of the wall fell from the ceiling, which caused a bunch of coal tars to fall. Just our luck that Shiemi and Izumo were cleaning right underneath. Because, you know, Rin's really smart sometimes.

"Shiemi!" he yelled, and leaped on top of the desks, jumping from one another. "Get away from her!" Rin's power awakened, and he controlled the blue flames to spread towards Shiemi, burning away all the coal tars. She gave out a small scream, as if expecting it to be hot.

"Moriyama-san!" Renzo yelped. Suguro ran towards Rin, and spun him around, his flames fading out.

"Stop! What the hell are you doing?" he yelled. "Do you want to burn her to death?!"

"_Huh?_"

"Those blue flames can kill!" Suguro looked away. "My grandfather, Shima's oldest brother, and Konekomaru's parents were all killed by Satan; your old man!"

We were speechless. I couldn't believe it...I never knew that. They had every right to hate us for it.

Suguro looked back at Rin, glaring, "I don't give a damn about what the Vatican thinks of you...but there's no way in hell we'd ever get along with you! (_Get it? 'In hell'? I'm hilarious, I know)_

"If you hurt anyone close to me, I won't hesitate to kill you!"

"I'm...I'm different than Satan!" Rin insisted. "Trust me!"

"That's enough!" We turned around to the familiar voice.

"Yukio!" Rin exclaimed.

"Okumura and Yousuf will be having special training from today, so they're coming with me," Yukio announced. "The rest of you may continue your work." He grabbed our hands, and dragged us with him.

"Hey-we're not done talking yet!" Rin yelled. Have I mentioned that Rin yells a lot? Well, if you can't tell, he does. "Let go of me, you moley four-eyes!"

"Damn…" I heard Suguro mutter, as Yukio pulled us along.

* * *

"Why do we have to take separate classes, anyway?" Rin asked. Look at that, more fair questions.

"You guys don't have any time to spare," Yukio said. "Get ready, because your guys's training will start right away; I expect you to put all energy into it, until the exams."

Rin completely ignored this, and went straight for the batting cages. Oh yeah, we were in the training area of cram school. It has a bunch of batting cages for exwires to practice with. Rin set one of them to beginner mode, and the rubber balls started to shoot out, one by one.

"Are you even listening?" Yukio sighed, and sat on one of the benches behind the cages. "The authorization exam is in six months, and if you guys don't pass it…"

"We know; they'll kill us," Rin said, gripping his wooden sword, and swinging at one of the rubber balls.

"Don't worry," he said. "I could do it without special training, too." At this point, I was sure that Rin didn't really have an idea what he was talking about. How can he be so casual about his own death sentence?

"You told Suguro to trust you…" Yukio said.

"So what?"

"You can only earn his trust by showing what you can do. You obviously don't have anything to show."

"What?!"

I sighed at this sibling quarrel. Right as I did, Shura happened to come along; she was dragging a huge-ass bag with one hand, with a wooden sword with the other.

"It's just as Scaredy Four-Eyes said!" she exclaimed, grinning.

"Shura-san? What the hell are you wearing?" Rin seemed pretty disgusted.

"What? I feel closer to nature like this!" Her expression went back to being serious. "You guys have got the blood of Satan in you, and I gotta say, its damn hot blood. Rin...you've only managed this far, because you've got a lot of potential in you. But, if you can't control the power you have, you definitely can't become an exorcist." She kneeled down, and opened up the bag she was carrying along with her, and produced candles.

"Here," she tossed one to each of us. "Let's see...first line up three of those, and only light the ones to the sides at the same time."

"Okay," Rin said, determined.

"Umm," I said, raising my hand a notch to note that I have no idea how to control my flames, or to actually bring out my flames in the first place.

"Oh, yeah!" Shura said, clapping her hands together. "Adira...I heard that Satan payed you a little visit, huh? Want to tell us about it?"

"I guess," I muttered. More like, '_I guess I have to, anyway_.'

Rin peered at me curiously, then the blood draining from his face.

"What, what?" he said. "Satan?"

So, I told them everything. From waking up in a white box, meeting Satan as a wolf, he telling me about my past and how I was related to him...and how my parents and brother were killed. But...I didn't tell them anything about _why_ I inherited his flames, or anything about 'The Deal'. I can't even figure out what it means in the first place, how can I tell them? And to be perfectly honest, I don't want them to know why I'm part demon, because of the soul reason to destroy Assiah, and create Satan's 'perfect world'. I was just a tool. I can't even say that I came from descent, and that a demon and a human loved each other so much, that they nurtured a child. _I was just a tool_. I wish I could go back to living with my family, even if I had to go through school filled with bullies. But at least I'd have people who cared for me, and none of this would've happened. I would've been a normal human being, leading a normal life, with no demons, or monsters, or worrying about the fate of humanity. When I finished, I didn't know what I was expecting. _How would they react when they realize that _I _had killed my own family?_ I looked up. Shura looked pretty chill about it, like she was expecting this the entire time. Yukio looked a bit concerned, and I saw pity in his eyes. Rin, on the other hand, looked blown away, but at the same time looked angry; not at me, though. My mind flashbacked to when Rin said that he wanted to kill Satan in the exwire exam in the forest. Is this what he meant? Satan had killed his foster dad, I knew that, but Rin had so much hatred for him that he wanted to destroy him. Oh, the irony.

"Did you know all this time?" I asked. "That I was part demon?"

Yukio looked guilty. Shura averted her eyes, and put her hands behind her back, whistling.

"Sorry, Adira," Yukio said. "We had to keep it a secret from you, to keep you safe."

I believed him. I didn't have time to hold grudges, anyway. There was another silence.

"Hey," Shura said softly, and patted my shoulder. "Don't worry about it, we'll get everything all fixed in no time."

"Thanks," I smiled at her.

"Hey!" Rin snapped out of his bewilderment. "You were never nice to _me_ like that when we first met!"

"Shut up, and get back to training," Shura said, pushing his head back. "Speaking of...how _will_ we get Adira to use her flames?"

We all looked at Rin.

"What?" he asked defensively.

"I've never actually thought of this before…" Yukio said thoughtfully. "Rin, how do you activate your flames without using the Kurikara sword?"

"I dunno," Rin said, scratching his head. "Like, when I get super mad, or something. But, later on, you can control it." He activated his flames, on and off, on and off.

"So...just concentrate really hard?" Yukio said, shrugging.

"Yeah, just concentrate really hard," Shura agreed.

"Thanks, guys," I said. "Feeling the love."

Rin sat down, his legs criss-crossed, and squinted at the three candles in front of him. He groaned, trying to only light the two besides the middle one, but failed miserably, lighting himself up, including all three candles.

"Damn…" He tried this like a million times, until he was frustrated enough to rip his hair out. "Ughhh!"

"Are you even trying?" Shura arched an eyebrow. "Do you want to know why you lost against Amaimon? It's because you're afraid. Get used to your flames, and build your confidence. After that, you'll train with the Demon-slaying Sword. Adira, same goes for you. That, if you can produce your flames in the first place…"

"Okay, I get it!" Rin said, unwavering. He erupted in flames, engulfing all candles again.

"Do you, really?" Shura sighed, and glanced over to Yukio.

"Hmm. You look so constipated, again," she told him. "You'll get an ulcer if you're always so stressed."

"And whose fault do you think that is?"

"Now, come with me, Yukio of the Scaredy Four-Eyes," Shura said leading him towards one of the batting cages.

"Don't want to."

"Oooh, that was quick! You're _so_ boring. Don't you remember? We used to bet our school lunches here."

Somehow, that triggered Yukio to say, "Alright." I thought that was pretty neat, since I didn't know that they were childhood 'friends'-err lack for a better word. They put up infinity mode, and started to go at it, hitting the rubber balls with ease, not missing a single one of them.

"Woah...thats so cool!" Rin gushed. I sighed, and lined up three candles. _So...how can I activate my flames…?_ I closed my eyes-it felt stupid, but I did what I had to do-and concentrated...I don't know what, exactly, but I gathered all the hatred I've been storing up for the past sixteen years of my life. Beads of sweat started to roll down my face. I was getting no where.

"God dammit!" I yelled; who would've thought that the sudden burst of anger would do it. The flames erupted, and looked down at my hands.

"Oh my god…" It's weird to say, but I was relieved that I finally did it, just because of that.

"Ha, you finally did it!" Rin grinned.

I smiled back, and leaned forward, "Still don't think that there's something wrong with me?"

"Why?"

I didn't say anything. _You know why…_

"Their deaths weren't your fault," he said, seriously.

"What do you mean?" I snorted.

"When my old man died...Yukio said it was because of me. But it wasn't; it was Satan. He killed my old man, your family...and you know that," Rin looked into my eyes, as if he was staring right at my soul. I stared back, my mouth agape. I finally realized what kept him driven, so undaunted. I closed my mouth. I didn't know what to say. He blushed, and quickly went back to lining up candles. I was sure this is what made such a likeable person, and without even knowing it, he can lift someone's spirits; he naturally affected people like that. I smiled.

"Thanks a lot, really," I said. But he didn't hear me; he was standing now, looking at Yukio and Shura still at it, knocking all the rubber balls away, in awe.

"Is that what pros are supposed to be like?" Rin gritted his teeth. "_Dammit!_"

_Oh, no, Rin-_

Before I could do anything, Rin's spurt of rage had brought about his flames, and the entire room had lit up, including me, Shura, and Yukio.

"Ehh," Rin stood staring. I covered my eyes. _Oh. My. God._ Rin's flames had burned off Shura and Yukio's clothes off, leaving them half naked. They both turned their heads simultaneously, and looked at us. I went behind Rin, and pushed him.

"He did it."

"Hey!" Rin said, tripping forward.

"Rin…" Yukio looked deadly. We shrunk. "What are you doing?"

"Ah...sorry!" he yelped. "Wait" he said, perking up, "Only your clothes burnt, but not your bodies or underwear! That means I have _some_ control, right?!"

"Not at all!" Yukio bellowed. He grabbed his coat, and muttered something about getting holy water to clean the place up.

I turned to Rin, and grabbed the collar of his shirt, lifting him off the ground with ease. _Oh, what the power of Satan can do_.

"_Why _did you do that? Now I'm embarrassed for the rest of my life, you idiot!" I glared at him. He stuck his tongue out, and scratched the back of his head, giggling. I softened at his gaze, and let go. He stumbled, and this time I grabbed his arm from falling. He looked up in surprise. I grinned, and let go of his arm. I motioned him to bring his ear closer. He looked confused for a second, but obliged.

"Nice one," I muttered, smirking.

* * *

**OMG DONE I ENDED WITH A HAPPIER NOTE THIS TIME LOL even though, we know whats coming up next, aha. Anyway, I hope you liked it! Review, and tell me if somethings didnt make sense or if you find typos or something, and I'll fix it as soon as possible. All types of criticism is accepted, and whether you have something to say or not, comment anyway lol it makes me feel like I accomplished something even though I didnt kay bye! XP**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Ayyyyyyy, new chapter ** **('o') ^( '-' )^ ('o') **

* * *

I curled up under my covers, on my phone, tapping away. I had accidently overslept. I sighed, and stared at the time on my phone. First period must've already started. I rolled out of my bed, and landed on the floor with a _thump_, staring at the ceiling, phone still in my hand. Rin probably ran out the door, still swallowing his breakfast, and Yukio busy being the perfect-A-grade student he is. I heard Rin yell to me to wake up, since he was going to be late, but I still overslept. I sighed again, stood up, and proceeded to fold my blankets, throwing my phone on it when I was done. I strolled to the bathroom, and washed up. As I finished dabbing my forehead with my towel, I stared at myself in the mirror in front of me. After loads of practice, I was able to activate my flames at will. I did this several times in front of the mirror at that very moment, watching how I turned from a human to a monster. I stopped, and walked out of the bathroom, brushing my hair, and tying it into a bun. I then went to my room, sat down, and brushed the end of my tail. Ooooh, the tail. It was so _weird_. I had learned that it was the demons most weakest points. That's also weird. I stopped mindlessly brushing the end of my tail, and changed into my school uniform, pinning up my headscarf, and strapped my sword around my waste. I went to my side table, and found the picture that I always kept with me-the one with me and my family-and put it in my back pocket. I grabbed my phone and put _that_ in my backpack, and took my backpack with me downstairs. The dorm was very quiet when no one else is there. The steps creaked as I went down, and whenever you talked, it echoed. Not that I talk to myself...okay, maybe I do, but I'm a lonely person, okay? I arrived to the kitchen, and my breakfast was already on the dining table. Ukobach must've left it there, since I hadn't come down to eat. I wasn't complaining that Rin or Yukio hadn't come to wake me up. I mean, we're just roommates, it's not like we wake each other up. And it would kinda be invading personal privacy. Just because we lived in the same dorm, it doesn't mean that I was their top priority. I pulled out a chair and sat down to eat. In the midst of eating, Ukobach had come out of the kitchen to say hi. He looked confused that I was late, but didn't say anything. I've never heard him speak before, even though he's a demon. I think he only talks to Rin, since they're good friends. When I finished, I walked out of the dorm, and headed to my first period class. I entered campus, and I reached the door, stared at it, hands in my pockets. I was thinking about what Rin had said to me the day before. I was thinking what I should do now. Something was urging me not to open the door to class. _I don't _feel _like it...not that I ever feel like going to class._ _Should I ditch? _I cocked my head. It's been awhile since I ditched class. The last time it happened was when I was under depression, since my family had passed away. Ditching was bad. It was one of things that the rebellious kids had done. I never had thought that I, of all people, would do it. I wanted to escape from people around me; that's why I did it. Others did it, because they didn't want to do the schoolwork. I didn't mind schoolwork, I just tried my hardest to keep straight A's, while sleeping in class at the same time. But I got this sudden surge of excitement. I turned away from the door, and started to fast walk. I didn't have to come to class...I had time to think. _Now...where can I find the nearest arcade?_

* * *

I was jamming buttons on the machine, as I stared up at the screen. I cursed as my character died, once again. I started to get up to leave, but I heard a voice behind me.

"Shouldn't you be at school?" I jumped a foot in the air, at the question. I whipped around to see who asked it. I found myself looking at someone who seems like a university or college student. He was average in height, had frisky blond hair, his eyes were bright gold. He had a name tag pinned to his shirt that said 'Sora'. He was kind of grinning at me as if I made a really lame joke, but found it funny, anyway.

"...Maybe…" I said carefully.

"You're not from here, are you?" He said, pulling up a stool next to me. I shook my head. I get that from most people, because of the way I speak Japanese, and of course, the way I look.

"Umm-" I started awkwardly.

"Oh! Sorry, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Sora!" He said pointing to his name tag. "I work here as a part-time job."

"I'm Adira. I go to high school in True Cross Academy…" As I said this, I just realized that I had told him that I went to school, after he asked me if I should be in class. I'm so smart sometimes. It was also pretty ironic that his name was 'Sora', a video game characters name, and he worked at an arcade.

"Hey, I graduated high school from True Cross!" he said. "What a coincidence, huh?"

I felt as though he was going to say something else, but someone from the front counter yelled, "Oi, Sora, your shift is over!"

"Oh!" He grinned sheepishly. "It was nice meeting you, Adira. I'll see you here some other time?"

"Yeah," I said. "Yeah, I'll be back sometime."

"Awesome." He waved, and went back to the front desk. I stood up, and looked around the arcade. There were barely any people there, I guess Sora was bored doing nothing, so he started to make small talk. I stood a bit dumbstruck. People can be so nice. I wish it was the same back in Los Angeles. I'm sure that there's normal people in L.A, but everyone was familiar with me being a monster of some sort.

I looked at the time; I still had a few hours left before cram school started. However, I started walking back towards True Cross, and had entered school campus. I went to the nearest tall building, and started to go up the stories, until I reached the very top of the building, leading to the roof. As, I opened the door, I felt a warm gust of wind blow towards me. I grinned. I loved going to the top of True Cross's school buildings. I still had no idea why I decided to not go to class. Was it depression that I realized what I had done to my family? Stress from the fact I had the weight of my family's and my friend's lives on the line? I felt like I wasn't taking this too seriously. I'm just confused. _What am I supposed to even do? And how? And when? _I have literally no idea what to do for the deal. No clue at all. No way to outsmart him. Can I reach the white room, say that I can bring Rin, then overpower Satan? But how do I get to the room in the first place? And even if I do, there's no way I can defeat Satan. I'm not like Rin; naturally able to handle a sword like it's my second nature, I've only been training for a bit, and clumsy as ever. Was it wrong choosing a sword to fight? I mean, this is my life decision, I just can't change it now, right? Or can I? The fact that I'm going to have to grow up to fight demons for my job is already unbelievable, and the fact that you can use swords and guns to kill them is also...unusual. But, I have no choice if I want to save my family. My fate is already paved for me. I had only closed my eyes for a second, but before I knew it, I had already fell asleep.

* * *

I snapped my eyes open, finding myself looking up at the glint of the sun. I squinted, and wiped my eyes groggily. I frowned, and it took me a second to realize where I was. _Crap!_ I snatched my phone to check the time, but I found something else, instead. It was a text from Mephisto. _What did _he _want? Oh my god...maybe he found out that I skipped! _I frantically opened it up; it was an important message that was sent to all exorcists. I was supposed to be in cram school ASAP. My eyes moved to the time. _Yep. ASAP is right. _Naturally, I was already late. Duh. _Maybe I shouldn't have skipped today. Today of all days. _

I sprung up, stuffing my homework back into my backpack, adjusting my sword, and swung the door leading towards the stairs open. I shut it behind me, and started to sprint down the stairs, skipping two at a time. _Why aren't there escalators in _this _part of the school? Seriously._ _Man, oh man._ _I'm so late! And screwed. Also screwed. But when am I not? _As I reached the bottom floor, I stopped running, and stayed out of clear sight from patrolling teachers, and tried to find a room in which there weren't any students in, so I could stick the magical key thing in, to teleport me to cram school. My eyes scanned every lock of each room, until I finally had reach a room in which there was no one in. I breathed out a sigh of relief, and rummaged my pack for the key. After years of searching (no to mention anxiety of the thought of losing it, and being even _more_ late to class), I had finally pulled it out, stuck the key in, and turned. I opened the door, finding myself in the usual hallway of _very_ colorful doors.

I slammed the door behind me, and started to run towards our usual classroom, until I flinched, and felt anger and confusion. I stopped running, clutching my sides. _Its probably Rin or Yukio… _I proceeded to sprint to my classroom, and I took a double-take when I heard a few yells. _What's going on there?!_ I had finally got to a point in the hallway where I could see what was happening: Koneko was on the floor, as if in pain, but seemed as though he was cringing away from Rin, who had his sword out, blue flames awakened. Renzo looked kind of lost, but worried at the same time (_typical Renzo…_), Suguro seemed to be more pissed than usual, and Yukio was also on the floor with Koneko as if helping him up. Or at least something like that. Of course, Konekomaru was still scared of Rin, and Suguro wasn't ready to forgive him. And Renzo...well I guess he just goes with the flow? I think he's fine with Rin, but then again, Renzo's just being Renzo.

Rin was advancing towards Konekomaru with his sword out, like he was going to strike him. _What the hell is he _doing_?! _Is he going berserk again? I tried to scan the area, trying to find something that would make him do that. Suguro had already blocked Rin with Renzo's k'rik, so I focused on Koneko while still running. I saw a flash of a black-ghostly figure by his shoulder, but right as I blinked it disappeared. _What was that? A demon? Man, that's probably what Rin is trying to get at…_

"Rin!" Yukio ordered him, as he pointed his gun, "Step away from Suguro." Yukio is pretty harsh to point his gun towards his own brother. Rin had calmed down a bit, and stepped down, but was still angry.

"Why are you pointing your gun at _me_? _He's _the one you should shoot!" Rin scoffed, jabbing his sword at Koneko's direction.

"Huh…?" he suddenly frowned. I knew it. So it wasn't just me who saw the demon disappear.

"Now , let's all calm down…" Renzo said, laughing shakily. The twins put down their weapons, and Suguro shoved the k'rik back into Renzo's arms, and started towards Konekomaru. But suddenly, it was there again.

Rin was agitated. "_Stop screwing with me!_" he yelled, and swung the Kurikara, yet again. Except, it was different. Instead of the blade hitting anything, it was the blue flames that had shot out of Rins sword, from his anger. There was only way for no one to get hurt, so I sped up and blocked Suguro and Konekomaru, spreading out my arms, and closed my eyes, ready for impact. The blue flames had hit me square in the chest, but I didn't feel a thing. I, instead, had absorbed them, which had caused my flames to activate for a bit, then fading out. I sighed with relief, but then collapsed to the floor.

"All of that was too much for my mental stability," I groaned, wiping my brow. I propped up on my shoulders, and turned towards Suguro and Koneko.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah…" Suguro took a second to reply. Koneko looked to scared to say anything.

"Are you-" Rin started to say, but Yukio had pinned him to the wall.

"Nii-san, what are you doing?! Don't you remember?! If you lose control…."

Suguro had gotten up, and pushed Yukio away, punching Rin straight in the jaw, knocking him right over. He fell to the floor with a grunt.

"Okumura, I told you...If you hurt any of my friends I'll kill you without mercy," Suguro turned towards me. "You might've just saved us, but if you try anything funny too…." I gulped. Suguro looked scary.

"Yes, sir," I mumbled. _Oh, crap, I should've just told them about the demon he was trying to get. I could've been Rin's witness. I'm such a horrible person. I'm trying to make _friends_, not _enemies.

"Koneko-san!" Renzo started to shake him, as he lay on the floor. "Hey, get a hold of yourself!"

Yukio gasped, and hurried to where Koneko lay. He kneeled down, and checked his pulse, and sighed with relief.

"Don't worry...he's just unconscious," Yukio smiled at Renzo.

Suguro turned back to us, and looked at Rin straight in the eye.

"Those flames can kill people...why don't you get that?" Suguro murmured. "Just get lost."

Rin slowly got up, and sheathed his blade, dragging it across the floor, leading in the opposite direction. I scrambled up, and tagged along with him. We walked together (if together means me standing three feet behind him, then yes, together) in silence for a bit. The feel guilt was rippling from him.

"...Sorry…" he muttered. _What is he saying sorry to _me _for?_

"For what?"

"Your shirt." I looked down. It was scorched with black. I yelped, not noticing it before. It had probably gotten there when Rin had summoned his flames.

I waved my hand, "It's fine. It's only a shirt, you know."

He didn't say anything, but continued until we got further down the hall, and turned to a door. He opened the door with his key, and it opened up to the top story of our dormitory, on the rooftop. It was a lot different from the school's rooftop. I looked around, and closed the door behind me. The sun was already set, and gray clouds covered the sky like a blanket. Rin laid down on the floor, with his hands behind his head. He was frowning. I felt really bad, but I didn't say anything. I figured if I were him, I wouldn't want anyone talking to me. I sat down besides him, criss-crossed, and set down my backpack which I've been carrying on my shoulder the whole time.

"_Those flames can kill people…_" Rin repeated what Suguro said. "Man, I've done it again…"

I hesitated, but opened my mouth to talk, "Rin...it's like what you told me...it's not _you_ who killed the people at the Blue Night, or your late father. It was Satan, right? _You're _the one who can choose to control them or not...but if you don't, then it _will_ be you who will kill…" I flicked my tail. I could feel the realization dawn upon Rin.

"I guess I should take training more seriously…." he said softly.

"Well, at least we learned something new today," I said lifting up a finger, "You can control your flames to move." With the same finger, I summoned my flames, and focused to spew flames out of it, creating the figure of a wolf.

Rin barely smiled, but at least it was something. "I already knew that."

"Oh."

"But why a wolf?"

I dropped my hand, deactivating the flames, and watched as the wolf dispersed.

"I don't know...first thing that came to mind, I guess?" I said, thinking about the figuration Satan had took when I met him. He was about to say something, but all of a sudden, the wind started to blow even harder than it already was, and wisps of black smoke started to appear, swirling to take the form of the demon we saw earlier. We both jumped up, switching gears. The demon was much bigger this time; it was a crow-like creature, it spread it wings, and let out a piercing cry. Without barely any reaction time, in a blink of an eye, it was flying towards us, I ducked, and rolled out of the way, and Rin back-flipped, landing on his feet, squating, where as I landed not as gracefully. _How did he even _do _that? No one can back-flip in such perfect form, right when a demon just came at them. I should take training more seriously, as well, if I'm going to become an exorcist. _

"You!" Rin growled at it. It lifted up it's head, and I gasped. Fit between the demons beak, was the head of Konekomaru. _It had taken over his body! _

Before I could process anything else, the demon had unsheathed its claws, and went straight for Rin, clawing him straight in the stomach, and he flung himself, with Rin, down the rooftop. At that point I was totally freaking out. I ran over to the ledge of the rooftop, and looked down. _Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay. _I had said this repeatedly in my brain over, and over, that fall can kill a man. The demon had dropped Rin last second, and flew up before it could hit the ground. You could see Koneko's face grin menacingly, as it advanced quickly towards the laying Rin.

"_Die, Satan spawn!_" It said. I didn't even think, and just jumped. As I fell, I unsheathed my sword from behind, coming down on the demon. _What am I doing? I'm going to _die _if I don't make it! I'm no hero!_

"Ah, man, screw this…" I muttered, and unleashed my flames, spreading my arms in front of me. I shot out my flames towards the floor, slowing my time to fall. I landed on my feet, right in between Rin and Konekomaru, a bit harshly, but still alive. I was about to celebrate, but then I realized in what position I was in. I turned towards the demon, and coming right at me were feathers as sharp as needles. My eyes widened with fear, did what was natural, by covering my face with my arms crossed in front of me, but they pierced through my blazer into the flesh of my arms. I let out a small scream of pain, paralyzed for a bit. _Come on, a few needles can't hurt you! _Yeah, right. I can't stand getting shots, how are a bunch of feather-like needles any better? I'm not used to this stuff, yet. Thank god I can sustain injuries better than others. _Ahh, that makes me feel guilty. But then again, being part demon isn't so great in the first place._.._Man, I don't have time to think about this!_

I quickly pulled out the feathers out of my arms, and faced the demon, going into a stance with my sword in front of me, ready to slash at it whenever it lunged.

"Konekomaru!" I heard Yukio, Suguro, and Renzo run around the corners. "Stop it, Miwa-kun!" I was relieved that they had come to help, but-.

"_Shut up!_" the demon yelled, and thrashed it wings, producing a wind barrier around us, blocking incomers.

"Well, ain't that bout a bitch…" I muttered, pissed that he had cut off my only way of surviving this hell hole. The demon turned to me, and it narrowed its red pupils, like it just noticed that I exist. I feel like this happened before, as well.

"_Oh...I've heard about you…_" it said. "_Satan made a mistake, creating another spawn...I guess I'll just have to kill you, as well!_"

It raised its wing, and whipped it towards me, sending me flying far enough to hit the inside of the wind barrier. The force of the wind had blew me back until I hit the ground. I groaned, sword still in my hand, my body aching. I lifted up my head, groggily, and squinted up.

"_You filthy demon...I'll chop your head off!_" the fowl said, and lifted Rin by the head in its claws.

"Woah, woah, woah," I said, trying to stand up, and waved my sword for balance. "That's, like, really hypocritical, if you think about it. Aren't you a demon, too? So, will you kill yourself after all this and say something like, 'Oh, now my mission is done; I have killed a demon, while I'm a demon myself, so I guess I have to kill myself too, now, boohoo.'"

The demon looked at me, like I said the most stupidest thing on the planet.

"What?"

"What?"

"Adira…" Rin groaned, head still in its claws. "Can you at least _help_?"

"Yeah, sorry about that," I said, and slashed my sword down directly the claws, holding in Rin. It saw that coming, and dropped him immediately.

"You okay?" I asked over the noise of the barrier.

"Yeah," he muttered, and pushed himself up. He let the cloth that wrapped around his sword fall, and looked up at the demon, his blue eyes flaring.

"We aren't part Satan because we like it!" Rin erupted in flames. _Damn, he just got _mad. "Konekomaru...if you really are afraid of us, I guess we can't really do anything about that. _But why the hell are you giving in to a freak like that?!_ You should ask your other friends for help!" Rin closed his eyes in desperation, and opened them again, determined.

"Oh my god, Rin…" I said, wiping a mock tear. "That was beautiful." It seemed as though Rin's speech had woken Konekomaru up. He was falling unconscious, and ready to give in.

"Dammit!" the fowl flew towards the sky. "I'm not letting you go!"

Rin gritted his teeth, and unsheathed his sword.

"Nii-san, what are you doing?!" Yukio shouted.

"Can't you see? I'm gonna help him! Come, Konekomaru!" Rin looked up to him. "Trust me! Jump!"

I saw Konekomaru contemplate his life decision at the very moment. It was a no brainer-he closed his eyes, and jumped. Rin leaped forward, caught him, and slashed at the demon right in it's belly, landing as carefully as he can on the cement, shouldering off Koneko.

"Koneko!" Suguro and Shima knelt to the lying Konekomaru.

"Bon...Shima…" Konekomaru looked at them, his eyes shiny. _D'awwwww._

Yukio and I ran over to Rin. "Nii-san!" Yukio put his arm on his back, as Rin sheathed his sword back up, kneeling.

"I'm fine, I'm fine…" he said, his voice cracking.

"See!" I said, patting his back. "I knew he'd be okay!" He rolled his eyes, still panting.

"Thanks for helping." he said sarcastically.

"Hey! I wasn't _completely _useless," I complained.

"Okumura-kun…" Koneko turned his head, looking at him, and started to cry. "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…"

I saw Rin's gaze soften. _That's really sweet._

* * *

Rest of cram today was cancelled. Right after the incident, Konekomaru was put back in the hospital, and Ryuji and Shima told us that they would stay with him for a while, so we let them be. Yukio had to go back to report to Mephisto about what happened. He told us that Rin and I should go back to the dormitory, and he'd be awhile.

"Busy guy, Yukio," I muttered, as we walked back.

"Yeah...hard to believe that my little brother came this far," Rin said sadly, but looked proud, nevertheless.

"Mmm…" I wonder what would it be like if _my _little brother was still alive and with me? What kind of person would he be like now, a couple years later? How nice would it be, fighting along side with someone you knew and loved your entire life? _But that would never happen...because the fact that he's gone, is the reason I'm here in the first place! _I angrily kicked a rock that was lying on the walkway.

"Hmm?" Rin glanced back at me, confused. I waved my hand in a 'forget it' gesture.

"So...you feeling better now that you gained their trust?"

"Hehe, yeah," Rin wiped the bottom of his nose. "Thanks a lot for that."

"Uhhh...'that', what?" I inquired, as I opened the door to our dorm.

"About what you told me on the roof," Rin closed the door behind him, and he went straight to the kitchen.

"Oh yeah, no problem. But I can't tell if you're lying or not," I followed him, and opened the fridge.

"Hey, I may lie a lot, but this is not one of those times. Like, we're friends, right?" He squatted, and tried looking for something good to eat in the fridge.

I folded my arms over the top of the fridge door. "We are? Like, seriously?"

"Well, we kinda live together, and we're in the same class, so yeah. I guess. It's like how we're friends with Shima, Bon, and the others," Rin stood back up, and had leftovers from last night in hand, now. He put it in the microwave for a couple minutes. "Oh! But to be honest, I thought you were a bit weird at first," he pointed.

I hung my head down. _Why does he have to be so pleasantly blunt about things?_

"Like, why is this chick coming all the way from America just to be an exorcist? But now we know, right? Haha. You seem cool, anyway." He grinned, his tail wagging back and forth.

"Oh, wow. Thanks a lot, man," I never dreamt of someone saying that to me. Ha! My first friend. Rin shrugged, sheepish.

I quickly opened the microwave before it hit zero. Rin grabbed three plates, and I forked equal amounts into each of them, leaving the third on the kitchen table for Yukio when he comes back. We brought our food to the table, me with a fork, and him with chopsticks, and sat down.

"You know, you're basically my first ever friend, right? We kinda _had_ to get along at first, since we stay in the same dorm, and everything, but you and Yukio are the first people that I talked to about my life. Wait, friends do that, right? Talk about each other's lives? I think so, at least. That's what the TV shows are like. And we're both related to Satan in some way. We're kinda the same if you think about it. Okay, not really, but-hey, are you listening?"

"Oh...yeah, sorry," Rin said his his mouth full. Half of his food was already gone.

"Nah, it's cool. I never talk to people like this, anyway, so I don't really care if you're listening or not. It's just nice to get it all off my shoulders," I said, and continued to eat. '_All..' Well, except one thing. _I stared at my food. I suddenly didn't feel hungry anymore. Rin noticed that I stopped talking, and he looked up.

"You know, you've been acting weird these days," he said, narrowing his eyes.

"Haha, really?" I said, nervously.

"Something happened, right? When you talked to _him_."

I looked up slowly, and Rin locked his eyes with mine. "You didn't tell us the full story. What _really_ happened when you were with him? Look, he's my _dad_,. I need to know at least _something_ about him," he hesitated. "We're friends, right?"

"...If I told you, we might not be friends anymore," I said quietly.

"Aha!" Rin yelled, and I jumped. He pointed, "There _is_ something!"

"It's something that I have to deal with alone. I'll tell you, sooner or later. I promise. When this is all over." _If you're still alive by the end of it. _The guilt was too much. I picked up my plate, and put it in the sink.

"You're acting like Yukio!" he complained. "And what do you mean, _when this is all over_?"

"Maybe Yukio goes through a lot, too. You should cut him some slack," I leaned against the sink, ignoring the second part.

He pouted, but then said, "Oh, yeah! Did you go to school late today? You didn't wake up, so I left without you."

"Ooooh. Haha...um, no?"

"So you were on time?"

"Uhhh…"

"Yukio was really pissed that you were late for cram school, too."

"Oh...was he, now? Aha…"

"Yeah, when he called your name for role, he looked up, and his eye did that twitch-thing," Rin said, and tried impersonating it. "It was probably, because you woke up late for regular school (if you woke up at all, haha), and then you got late for cram school-" Rin frowned, and started to piece things together-"Wait a second...did you sk-?"

Before he could finish, we heard the door open, and Yukio walked in, unbuttoning his coat. He sighed.

"Yo!" Rin said, grinning. "Food is in the kitchen."

"Thanks, nii-san," Yukio said, then looked at me. "Mephisto wants to talk to you tomorrow morning, regarding your absences."

"Yeah, okay," I mutter.

"So you _did_ skip!" Rin laughed. "Why?"

"I dunno...didn't feel like coming?"

He didn't say anything after that. Rin, of all people, would know that feeling.

"Yeah, well, just don't be late again," Yukio said, clearing his throat.

"Yes, sir." I handed him his plate. "I think it got cold," I added.

He shrugged, and went to sit with Rin, who was trying to balance his chopsticks on his nose.

"So, um...goodnight?" I said awkwardly.

Yukio shook his head. "Let me treat your injuries first."

_Oh, yeah. I almost forgot about the whole fight thing. _

He walked over to the medicine cabinet, and got a few bandaids and cleansers. He patched up arm, but that was pretty much it. He told me to go wash up properly before going to bed.

"What are you, my mom?" I smirked.

"More like your doctor."

"Well, thanks." He nodded, and started to clean Rin up, as well ("Ow, Yukio, that _hurts!_")

I said goodnight to them for the second time, and that was that.

* * *

I woke up early the next day, and got ready for school, as much as it was difficult to wake myself up. I was back in the kitchen, looking for something to eat for breakfast. _You know, I'm not even that hungry._ I opened the cabinet which had our stash of junk food, and grabbed a box of Pocky for the walk. I told Ukobach that I was leaving early, and to tell Rin and Yukio that I didn't dissapear. I strolled out the door, and ripped the bag of Pocky open, munching on them on the way to Mephisto's office. _I wonder what he's going to say? Do? Okay, maybe not _do_, but whatever._ I arrived in front of his door, and put the Pocky away in my backpack, swinging the door open.

"Ah, Adira. We meet again," Mephisto said, looking up from some paperwork.

"Oh, hi. And I'm pretty sure you said the same exact thing when I was in here the first time." _Except you don't call me 'Adira-chan', now. That's a relief, like thank God._

He grinned. "Sit down."

I did.

"So, why you're here is because I got complaints from your teachers that you were not present in any of their classes. _And_, you were late to cram school, and the only reason you came was because I sent out that mass text to everybody...correct?"

I nodded, guiltily.

"Skipping school can really ruin your education, you know that, right?"

I nodded again.

"What I usually tell my other students is that if they feel the need to tell someone about...err, _personal issues, _for the reason of skipping school, they can talk to the counselors. But, of course, something else is on your mind...right?"

I paused, and looked into his stupid clown eyes. Not that I have something against his eyes.

"Why are you asking me? You already know, don't you?"

"Know what?" He asked, innocently.

"Don't screw with me. Rin's life is on the line. Do you even trust me to make my decision?"

"You'll find a way, Adira," Mephisto said, holding up a finger. _So he _does _know, the sly bastard. I bet he doesn't even care. He'll just be on the sidelines, sipping on his tea, not giving two shits about what's happening. I mean, he _is _one of the demon kings of hell. He probably hangs around Satan a lot, or something, and just _happened _to know. _

"So, concerning your absence," He continued, "If this happens two more times, you'll be expelled."

"What? No way. How strict do you make your policies?"

"Well, this school is supposed to be pretty rich, the kids here take studying very seriously, so we can't have little delinquents running around campus."

"I'm not a delinquent."

"Anywho, even if you _do_ skip twice more, we can't have you expelled, since you'll have no where to go, and I would still make you go to cram school. So basically, it doesn't even matter."

"Oh, cool. Then why are you telling me this?"

He shrugged. "I have no idea, to be honest with you. But! As a punishment, you still need to go around school, picking up trash. Fill two bags," He handed me two trash bags, and a slip of paper.

"_What?_" I exclaimed.

"You're dismissed," he said. "Have fun~!"

"Wait, wait. I still have a question. Can I have a new shirt? Mine kinda burned."

"Hm? Oh, sure."

"Thanks. Oh, and I have another question."

"What is it this time?" Mephisto sighed, handing me a shirt.

"Do you know a guy named Sora?" I asked, and took the shirt. "He said that he graduated from True Cross."

Mephisto grinned. "Oh, you met him already?"

"'Already'?"

"Believe it or not, he's an exorcist."

My jaw dropped. "Ha, what are the chances?"

"_And_, I heard that you were having trouble with your special training that Shura ensued upon you, so I requested that he would help you with it. He's an excellent exorcist of upper first class rank."

_Um, wow. That escalated _real _quick. But, doesn't that mean that he already knew who I was when I was in the arcade? And what's a guy like _him _doing, working in an arcade?_ "But, why me? What about Rin?" I resorted asking Mephisto.

"I feel as though you and Sora have a lot in common. A connection that Rin and Yukio don't have, even if they don't have parents." _Uhhh...what is he talking about? 'Even if they don't have parents'? Mephisto, you need to take a chill pill, bro. _"So," he continued, "you'll probably have lessons with him once a while. I hope that you'll learn something from him. Now, scurry off. First period is about to start."

"Oh, okay, then. Bye, I guess," I got up, clutching my new shirt.

"Don't forget to fill those trash bags~!" He said, as I opened his door to leave.

_Damn clown..._

* * *

**A/N: (I hope you guys read these authors notes, they have important stuff in them :o just saying, just in case I need to tell you guys stuff)**

**OMG NEW OC. I hope you like him, cause I kinda do. He will make more appearances in the future :] At first I threw him in as a filler character, but then I thought that I can make him more, so I did. Guess we'll have to see where it takes us XD**

**Also, the next episode is the one where it's Izumo's birthday, but I'm not sure if I should write a chapter of it, since it's mostly Izumo's POV. I might, though, but it will probably be **_**really**_ **short. Stay tuned.**

**So, yeah! Favorite, follow, review, do that good stuff if you liked it :] Also, if you care at all, comment if you want to actually read a chapter of the birthday episode in Adira's POV XD Thanks for reading! **


	8. Ending :(

hey, friends ! wow, it's been forever and a half since i've joined and wrote my fanfic lmao i hope you guys didn't forget about me ;)))  
but even if you did, that's okay, because i actually wanted to let you guys know that i'm actually going to stop updating this fanfic :((  
i'm really sorry if i disappointed you bc of this, but there are valid reasons for this decision. i was _way_ to ignorant when i started writing this and just hoped that i'd figure out something along the way, but to this day, i have no idea how i would've ended this fanfic. the reason i wrote this was bc i just really wanted to write something that peaked my own interest. i went head first into this thing too quickly. and tbh reading this back has been rlly cringy to me lol. like there's no explanation to anything ? like how adira became a demon in the first place ? like wtf was i thinking lmao.  
anyways, i hope you guys wont be too mad at me. i got reviews that were so nice and still mean _so_ much to me ! im so glad i got to bring Muslims together from a simple fanfic, you guys are awesome 3 this was the first time i publicly displayed my writing, and to me that was a huge milestone even though it may not seem that much to you guys. i will take in whatever you said into consideration for my future works of writing :) 3  
so, it was honestly so much fun while this lasted, but it's time for me to finally put this fanfic to an end. love you guys and i hope you guys dont hate me forever ! 33


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